ArticleBMC public health2022
Health care costs and lost productivity costs related to excess weight in Belgium.
Article in BMC public health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Obesity, Employment, and Economic Productivity in Europe: A Systematic Literature Review.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Pooled it
- Costs of mental health care resource use in people with obesity: A systematic review.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Health economic evaluation of weight reduction interventions in individuals suffering from overweight or obesity and a musculoskeletal diagnosis-a systematic review.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2024Pooled it
- Benchmarking the nutrition-related commitments and practices of major Belgian food companies by industry sector and over time (2019-2023/2024).BMC nutrition · 2026Article
- The economic burden of alcohol in Belgium: incremental healthcare costs and lost productivity.European journal of public health · 2026Article
- Multimorbidity and the indirect cost of productivity loss from health-related work absenteeism in Belgium.European journal of public health · 2025Observational
- Indirect costs constitute a major part of the total economic burden of obesity: a Finnish population-based cohort study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- The economic burden of smoking in Belgium: incremental healthcare costs and lost productivity.European journal of public health · 2025Article
- Cost of illness analysis in individuals with overweight or obesity and chronic low back pain in the Bern metropolitan area (the BO2WL trial).Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Multimorbidity healthcare expenditure in Belgium: a 4-year analysis (COMORB study).Health research policy and systems · 2024Article
- Double burden of malnutrition among women and children in Zimbabwe: a pooled logistic regression and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Linking health survey data with health insurance data: methodology, challenges, opportunities and recommendations for public health research. An experience from the HISlink project in Belgium.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2023Article
- Healthcare costs attributable to abnormal weight in China: evidence based on a longitudinal study.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Obesity prevention and sustainable food systems: rethinking the nexus through a health in all policies approach.The journal of climate change and healthArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThis study aimed to estimate annual health care and lost productivity costs associated with excess weight among the adult population in Belgium, using national health data.
methodsHealth care costs and costs of absenteeism were estimated using data from the Belgian national health interview survey (BHIS) 2013 linked with individual health insurance data (2013-2017). Average yearly health care costs and costs of absenteeism were assessed by body mass index (BMI) categories - i.e., underweight (BMI < 18.5 kg/m
resultsAccording to BHIS 2013, 34.7% and 13.9% of the Belgian adult population were respectively affected by overweight or obesity. They were mostly concentrated in the age-group 35-65 years and had significantly more chronic conditions compared to the normal weight population. Average total healthcare expenses for people with overweight and obesity were significantly higher than those observed in the normal weight population. The adjusted incremental annual health care cost of excess weight in Belgium was estimated at €3,329,206,657 (€651 [95% CI: €144-€1,084] and €1,015 [95% CI: €343-€1,697] per capita for individuals with overweight and obesity respectively). The comorbidities identified to be the main drivers for these incremental health care costs were hypertension, high cholesterol, serious gloom and depression. Mean annual incremental cost of absenteeism for overweight accounted for €242 per capita but was not statistically significant, people with obesity showed a significantly higher cost (p < 0.001) compared to the normal weight population: €2,015 [95% CI: €179-€4,336] per capita. The annual total incremental costs due to absenteeism of the population affected by overweight and obesity was estimated at €1,209,552,137. Arthritis, including rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, was the most important driver of the incremental cost of absenteeism in individuals with overweight and obesity, followed by hypertension and low back pain.
conclusionsThe mean annual incremental cost of excess weight in Belgium is of concern and stresses the need for policy actions aiming to reduce excess body weight. This study can be used as a baseline to evaluate the potential savings and health benefits of obesity prevention interventions.
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