Cost and cost-effectiveness of obesity treatment: a mini review

In the past two decades, the prevalence of obesity has increased significantly and became one of the important issues of public health and medical care in the world [1-3]. About 27.5% of adults and 47.1% of children are overweight or obese in 2013 worldwide [2]. Obesity and its related co-morbidities, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), hypertension, dyslipidemia, coronary heart disease, degenerative arthritis, respiratory and sleep disorders, and certain cancers, are common chronic diseases in both developed and developing countries [4]. For example, the risk for obese subjects to develop T2DM and hypertension is 27.6 times and 3.9 times greater than normal weight subjects, respectively [4]. Furthermore, as the medical expenses of these diseases increase, the costs of obesity and its related co-morbidities make up 2-20% of total medical expenditure and become a major economic burden worldwide.