{"title":"Body Mass Index and Medical Expenses Covered by the National Health Insurance Service in Korean Adults.","authors":"Youn Huh, Ga Eun Nam, Hye Soon Park","doi":"10.7570/jomes24019","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>This study aimed to analyze the medical expenses covered by the Korean National Health Insurance Service (KNHIS) according to body mass index (BMI) in Korean adults.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We included 1,170,464 adults (623,498 men and 546,966 women) aged ≥19 years from the KNHIS-National Sample Cohort database (2016 to 2019) after excluding individuals with cancer. Average annual medical expenses per person and average annual medical expenses (Korean won [KRW], 1 United States dollar= 1,292 KRW) by BMI classification were assessed according to age and sex. Medical expenses comprised those for medication and combined outpatient department (OPD) and hospitalization services. Means and 95% confidence intervals were analyzed using a two-part model.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Average annual medical expenses increased in higher BMI quintile groups (<i>P</i> for trend <0.001). Average annual medical expenses per person increased significantly as BMI increased in women but not in men. Average annual medical expenses were highest in the highest quintile of BMI among women and in all age groups. While BMI showed a U-shape association with medical expenses for OPD and hospitalization in young individuals, medical expenses for medication in all age groups and those for OPD and hospitalization in middle-aged individuals increased sharply in the highest BMI quintile.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>All types of average annual medical expenses increased in higher BMI groups in Korean adults, particularly in women. Individuals with the highest BMI quintile incurred the greatest medical expenses among women and across all age groups. Strategies for preventing and managing obesity are warranted to reduce the burden of obesity-related medical expenses.</p>","PeriodicalId":45386,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Obesity & Metabolic Syndrome","volume":" ","pages":"138-147"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12067005/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Obesity & Metabolic Syndrome","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.7570/jomes24019","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/2/25 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENDOCRINOLOGY & METABOLISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: This study aimed to analyze the medical expenses covered by the Korean National Health Insurance Service (KNHIS) according to body mass index (BMI) in Korean adults.
Methods: We included 1,170,464 adults (623,498 men and 546,966 women) aged ≥19 years from the KNHIS-National Sample Cohort database (2016 to 2019) after excluding individuals with cancer. Average annual medical expenses per person and average annual medical expenses (Korean won [KRW], 1 United States dollar= 1,292 KRW) by BMI classification were assessed according to age and sex. Medical expenses comprised those for medication and combined outpatient department (OPD) and hospitalization services. Means and 95% confidence intervals were analyzed using a two-part model.
Results: Average annual medical expenses increased in higher BMI quintile groups (P for trend <0.001). Average annual medical expenses per person increased significantly as BMI increased in women but not in men. Average annual medical expenses were highest in the highest quintile of BMI among women and in all age groups. While BMI showed a U-shape association with medical expenses for OPD and hospitalization in young individuals, medical expenses for medication in all age groups and those for OPD and hospitalization in middle-aged individuals increased sharply in the highest BMI quintile.
Conclusion: All types of average annual medical expenses increased in higher BMI groups in Korean adults, particularly in women. Individuals with the highest BMI quintile incurred the greatest medical expenses among women and across all age groups. Strategies for preventing and managing obesity are warranted to reduce the burden of obesity-related medical expenses.
期刊介绍：
The journal was launched in 1992 and diverse studies on obesity have been published under the title of Journal of Korean Society for the Study of Obesity until 2004. Since 2017, volume 26, the title is now the Journal of Obesity & Metabolic Syndrome (pISSN 2508-6235, eISSN 2508-7576). The journal is published quarterly on March 30th, June 30th, September 30th and December 30th. The official title of the journal is now "Journal of Obesity & Metabolic Syndrome" and the abbreviated title is "J Obes Metab Syndr". Index words from medical subject headings (MeSH) list of Index Medicus are included in each article to facilitate article search. Some or all of the articles of this journal are included in the index of PubMed, PubMed Central, Scopus, Embase, DOAJ, Ebsco, KCI, KoreaMed, KoMCI, Science Central, Crossref Metadata Search, Google Scholar, and Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI).
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