Weighing in on Health
Obesity is a growing problem for the physical health of employees and financial health of businesses.

By Janette Lockridge

Do you find that your business suits are fitting more snugly than they used to? You are not alone. In both Missouri and Kansas, obesity rates are at an all-time high. Many experts consider our obesity problem at epidemic portions. In Missouri, more than one in five adults are considered obese, and more than half are overweight, according to the state health department. Kansas doesn’t fair any better—it is the 27th fattest state in the nation.

It is estimated that more than 22 percent of the adult population in Kansas is obese.

In simplest terms, our body weight is determined by what we eat, and how active we are. If we put in more calories than we burn off, we will gain weight over time. But, overweight and obesity are caused by many factors. Each person’s body weight is determined by a combination of genetic, environmental, metabolic, cultural, socioeconomic and behavioral influences. Of all these contributors, behavioral and environmental factors are the largest contributors, but also can provide the greatest opportunity for interventions.

This is a huge problem for small business owners. Billions of dollars are spent annually on obesity-attributed medical expenses. Obesity impacts your quality of life by costing big dollars in health insurance, lost productivity due to health-related conditions, and high-levels of absenteeism.

According to an article published in the American Journal of Health Promotions, U.S. businesses spend substantial amounts of money on addressing the following obesity-related diseases:
•    Coronary heart disease—$6.4 billion
•    Hypertension—$3.5 billion
•    Stroke—$2.0 billion
•    Type II diabetes—$2.8 billion

In a Business and Health special report, it was estimated that 58 million days of work were lost annually because of obesity. These lost days cost approximately $5.7 billion.

“Overweight and obesity must be approached as preventable and treatable problems with realistic and exciting opportunities to improve health and save lives,” according to the U.S. Surgeon General in 2001.

So how do we “improve health and save lives?” We first must acknowledge the problem. Second, we need to commit to solving the problem in the most productive and cost-efficient way possible. Last, we need to develop a coordinated plan of action—not one that will erase the problem overnight that took years to create, but rather a real attainable and workable solution.

Healthy People 2010 is a set of national standards created to help Americans reach optimal health by the year 2010. This document recommends that American get at least 30 minutes of physical exercise each day to help them maintain a healthy body and manage their weight. With the creation of the cell phone, faxes, computers, e-mail and Palm Pilots, workers could stay at their workstations for hours. With the technological advances, we have grown accustom to more sedentary lifestyles.

There is, however, hope even for small employers. When employers invest in comprehensive wellness programs (addressing more than just obesity), they provide an opportunity to make a real difference in their employees’ lives, and ultimately their companies’ bottom-line.

Health insurance costs for obese employees and their families are on the increase. An estimated 13 percent of children ages six to 11 are overweight, and 14 percent of adolescents ages 12 to 19 are overweight, according to a report in The New England Journal of Medicine.

You can look at it this way—pay now or pay later. One way you can gain control over your health care spending is by implementing meaningful workplace wellness strategies and interventions to help lower your health plan costs. After all, the workplace is where most adults spend the majority of their day. It makes sense to provide opportunities to adopt and reinforce healthy lifestyle behavior.

Businesses also can extend basic worksite health care programming to include more sustainable actions, such as developing appropriate workplace polices to promote healthy lifestyles, adding physical and social environments to make it easy for employees to participate, and linking the community and families into the process to meet their needs as well. By promoting employee health and wellness, employers can see a return on their investment and improve their work environment.

Janette Lockridge, M.A., is president of WellWork, Corporate Wellness Services, LLC, which provides outcome-based programs that show measurable results to improve employees’ total quality of life. She can be reached at .