Obese patients cost the NHS twice as much as those within a healthy weight range, according to research.
Using the health records of 2.4 million adults in north-west London, researchers found spending increased for heavier patients, primarily for obesity-related conditions. Patients of a healthy weight cost the NHS an average of £638 annually, the study found.
The results, presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Dublin, laid bare the cost of obesity for the NHS as the government faces scrutiny for its failure to address the chronic policy issue.
The study found the NHS spent an average of £1,375 annually on morbidly obese patients with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 40 – more than half of the study’s participants. Obese patients with a BMI of 30 to 35 cost the health service an average of £979 annually, which increased to £1,178 for those with a BMI between 35 and 40.
If everyone were a healthy weight, the study suggested, the NHS would save nearly £14bn annually.
The lead researcher, Dr Jonathan Pearson-Stuttard, a public health lecturer at Imperial College London and head of health analytics at the Lane Clark & Peacock consultancy, said the cost was borne not only from living with obesity but the myriad related conditions such as heart attacks and strokes.
“As weight increases through the BMI categories – from healthy to overweight to obese – costs increase and use of healthcare resources increase,” Pearson-Stuttard said. “The ill health and costs associated with obesity compound over time. Not only is that impacting individual health, but also costs to the NHS and the economic workforce.”
In England, 63% of adults are living above a healthy weight, according to government figures published in May, and among them half are living with obesity.
For successive UK governments, obesity has long posed a threat to public health. With the third-highest obesity rate in Europe, after Malta and Turkey, in the last 30 years there have been four strategies and 689 policies to counter obesity, as well as the creation and later abolition of 14 different bodies to oversee progress, but little has been done to curb the trend.
The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has delayed measures promised by Boris Johnson in 2020 while he was in No 10 to introduce policies including restricting advertising of foods high in fat, salt or sugar on television before the 9pm watershed.
Last month, a report by the Institute for Government said that while Sunak’s government says it wants to reduce obesity, it “has no serious plan to achieve that aim”. A failure to address the problem will lead to lower productivity, higher taxes, greater health inequalities and increasing pressure on the NHS, according to the thinktank.
The Department of Health and Social Care said obesity is a serious health risk and new ways to help and incentivise people to live longer, healthier lives are being explored.
“Trials of new obesity treatments and technologies are being backed by £20 million of government funding, and we will introduce restrictions banning adverts on TV for less healthy foods before 9pm, as well as paid-for adverts of these products online.”
