IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eej/eeconj/v32y2006i1p171-187.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What is the Economic Cost of Overweight Children?

Author

Listed:
  • Eric Johnson

    (Kent State University)

  • Melayne Morgan McInnes

    (University of South Carolina)

  • Judith A. Shinogle

    (RTI International)

Abstract

Childhood overweight is now considered the most common health problem for children in the U.S. An important question is whether parents and policymakers will see rising medical expenditures for these children while they are still young. We estimate the overweight attributable fraction (OAF) of children’s medical expenditures, controlling for other factors that may cause expenditures to differ. We find that medical expenditures for overweight children are on average $12.09 higher per year (OAF = 0.5 percent), but confidence intervals are large and include zero. We also find little difference in the types of principal diagnoses per visit reported by weight status.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric Johnson & Melayne Morgan McInnes & Judith A. Shinogle, 2006. "What is the Economic Cost of Overweight Children?," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 32(1), pages 171-187, Winter.
    • Handle: RePEc:eej:eeconj:v:32:y:2006:i:1:p:171-187
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://web.holycross.edu/RePEc/eej/Archive/Volume32/V32N1P171_187.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Coller, M. & Harrison, G.W. & McInnes, M.M., 2002. "Evaluating the tobacco settlement damage awards: Too much or not enough?," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(6), pages 984-989.
    2. Chou, Shin-Yi & Grossman, Michael & Saffer, Henry, 2004. "An economic analysis of adult obesity: results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 565-587, May.
    3. John Cawley, 2004. "The Impact of Obesity on Wages," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(2).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Odelia Rosin, 2008. "The Economic Causes Of Obesity: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 617-647, September.
    2. Cawley, John & Liu, Feng, 2012. "Maternal employment and childhood obesity: A search for mechanisms in time use data," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 352-364.
    3. Kinge, Jonas Minet & Morris, Stephan, 2015. "The impact of childhood obesity on health and health service use: an instrumental variable approach," HERO Online Working Paper Series 2015:2, University of Oslo, Health Economics Research Programme.
    4. John Cawley & Chad Meyerhoefer & David Newhouse, 2007. "The Correlation Of Youth Physical Activity With State Policies," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 25(4), pages 506-517, October.
    5. Davene Wright & Lisa Prosser, 2014. "The Impact of Overweight and Obesity on Pediatric Medical Expenditures," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 139-150, April.
    6. Christina Wenig, 2012. "The impact of BMI on direct costs in Children and Adolescents: empirical findings for the German Healthcare System based on the KiGGS-study," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 13(1), pages 39-50, February.
    7. Lopez-Agudo, Luis Alejandro & Marcenaro-Gutierrez, Oscar David, 2021. "The relationship between overweight and academic performance, life satisfaction and school life," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    8. Ms Fozia & Durdana Qaiser Gillani & Asifa Iftikhar, 2022. "Do Employed Females Provide Better Care to Their Children? The Case of Education and Health Care in Pakistan," Journal of Economic Impact, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 4(2), pages 134-141.
    9. Black, Nicole & Hughes, Robert & Jones, Andrew M., 2018. "The health care costs of childhood obesity in Australia: An instrumental variables approach," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-13.
    10. Cawley, John, 2008. "Contingent valuation analysis of willingness to pay to reduce childhood obesity," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 281-292, July.
    11. Breitfelder, Ariane & Wenig, Christina M. & Wolfenstetter, Silke B. & Rzehak, Peter & Menn, Petra & John, Jürgen & Leidl, Reiner & Bauer, Carl Peter & Koletzko, Sibylle & Röder, Stefan & Herbarth, Olf, 2011. "Relative weight-related costs of healthcare use by children--Results from the two German birth cohorts, GINI-plus and LISA-plus," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 302-315, July.
    12. Monheit, Alan C. & Vistnes, Jessica P. & Rogowski, Jeannette A., 2009. "Overweight in adolescents: Implications for health expenditures," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 55-63, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2012. "A Matter of Weight? The Role of Spouses. Physical Attractiveness on Hours of Work," CHILD Working Papers Series 7, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    2. Kemp, Gordon C.R. & Santos Silva, J.M.C., 2012. "Regression towards the mode," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 170(1), pages 92-101.
    3. Md. Alauddin Majumder, 2013. "Does Obesity Matter for Wages? Evidence from the United States," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 32(2), pages 200-217, June.
    4. Sonya Huffman & Marian Rizov, 2014. "Body weight and labour market outcomes in Post-Soviet Russia," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(5), pages 671-687, July.
    5. Christopher Carpenter & Sebastian Tello-Trillo, 2015. "Do 'Cheeseburger Bills' Work? Effects of Tort Reform for Fast Food," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(4).
    6. Brunello, Giorgio & D'Hombres, Beatrice, 2007. "Does body weight affect wages?: Evidence from Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 1-19, March.
    7. Brendan Kline & Justin L. Tobias, 2014. "Explaining Trends in Body Mass Index Using Demographic Counterfactuals," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1-4), pages 172-196, June.
    8. Joelle Abramowitz, 2016. "The connection between working hours and body mass index in the U.S.: a time use analysis," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 131-154, March.
    9. Euna Han & Lisa M. Powell, 2013. "Fast Food Prices And Adult Body Weight Outcomes: Evidence Based On Longitudinal Quantile Regression Models," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(3), pages 528-536, July.
    10. Huang, Ying, 2012. "an econometric study of the impact of economic variables on adult obesity and food assistance program participation in the NLSY panel," ISU General Staff Papers 201201010800003717, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    11. Baum II, Charles L. & Ruhm, Christopher J., 2009. "Age, socioeconomic status and obesity growth," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 635-648, May.
    12. Costa-Font, Joan & Fabbri, Daniele & Gil, Joan, 2009. "Decomposing body mass index gaps between Mediterranean countries: A counterfactual quantile regression analysis," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 351-365, December.
    13. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald & Bert Van Landeghem, 2009. "Imitative Obesity and Relative Utility," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 528-538, 04-05.
    14. Stifel, David C. & Averett, Susan L., 2009. "Childhood overweight in the United States: A quantile regression approach," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 387-397, December.
    15. Vincenzo Atella & Joanna Kopinska, 2011. "Body weight of Italians: the weight of Education," CEIS Research Paper 189, Tor Vergata University, CEIS, revised 23 Mar 2011.
    16. Qi Zhang & Zhuo Chen & Norou Diawara & Youfa Wang, 2011. "Prices of Unhealthy Foods, Food Stamp Program Participation, and Body Weight Status Among U.S. Low-Income Women," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 245-256, June.
    17. Zarko Kalamov, 2020. "A sales tax is better at promoting healthy diets than the fat tax and the thin subsidy," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 353-366, March.
    18. John Cawley & Stephanie von Hinke Kessler Scholder, 2013. "The Demand for Cigarettes as Derived from the Demand for Weight Control," NBER Working Papers 18805, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Aliaksandr Amialchuk & Kateryna Bornukova & Mir M. Ali, 2018. "Will a Decline in Smoking Increase Body Weights? Evidence from Belarus," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 44(2), pages 190-210, April.
    20. Robert Goldfarb & Thomas C. Leonard & Steven Suranovic, 2006. "Modeling Alternative Motives for Dieting," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 32(1), pages 115-131, Winter.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eej:eeconj:v:32:y:2006:i:1:p:171-187. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Victor Matheson, College of the Holy Cross (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eeaa1ea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.