The burden of abdominal obesity with physical inactivity on health expenditure in Brazil

Jamile S Codogno,Rômulo A Fernandes,Bruna C Turi,Henrique L Monteiro,Flávia M Sarti

doi:10.1590/s1980-65742015000100009

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between the clustering of physical inactivity with abdominal obesity and public health care expenditure in Brazilian adults. The sample was composed of 963 patients of both genders, randomly selected in the Brazilian Public Health care System during 2010. Entire health care expenditures during the last year were computed and stratified into: medical consultations, medication dispensing, laboratory tests and overall expenditure. Waist circumference was used to diagnose abdominal obesity and physical activity was assessed by previously validated questionnaire. Sedentary and abdominally obese patients (OR= 3.01 [OR95%CI= 1.81-4.99]) had higher likelihood be inserted in the group of higher expenditures than only abdominally obese patients (OR= 1.66 [OR95%CI= 1.07-2.59]). There is a synergic effect between abdominal obesity and physical inactivity on overall health care expenditures.

Highlights

A decrease in quality of life and an increase in years of life lost are outcomes which are significantly related to chronic diseases (Fontaine, Redden, Wang, Westfall, & Alisson, 2003)
The presented survey aimed to analyze the association between clustering of abdominal obesity with physical activity and health expenditure in Brazilian users of the public health care system
It is very difficult to compare the prevalence of abdominal obesity in adults, because body mass index (BMI) is the main anthropometric tool used worldwide and, there is an absence of epidemiological surveys presenting data of abdominal obesity

Summary

Introduction

A decrease in quality of life and an increase in years of life lost are outcomes which are significantly related to chronic diseases (Fontaine, Redden, Wang, Westfall, & Alisson, 2003). Individuals diagnosed with chronic non-communicable diseases present increased public and private health care expenditure related to medical services, such as medicines, medical consultations and laboratory tests (Codogno, Fernandes, Sarti, Freitas Junior, & Monteiro, 2011; Wolfenstetter, 2012). With regard to the harmful effects of excess body fat on human health, scientific literature has pointed out that the consequences of abdominal obesity are worse than general obesity (Huang, 2009). Predominantly in developing nations, the actual financial impact of abdominal obesity on the public health care system is not clear, mainly because most of studies use only markers of general obesity, such as body mass index (BMI). In 2007, overweight -related diseases constituted 6.8% and 9.3% of the total Brazilian public health care expenditure for men and women, respectively (Sichieri, do Nascimento, & Coutinho, 2007)

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