Fat People Are Cheap Dates
In the world of health care, that is. We die sooner, so we cost less! Okay, so that’s not exactly a generalization that anyone around here agrees with, but hell. It’s better than “you fat people are costing me health care money and that’s why it is acceptable that I am shaming you.” Here’s the story:
On average, [thin and non-smoking] people lived 84 years. Smokers lived about 77 years, and obese people lived about 80 years. Smokers and obese people tended to have more heart disease than the [thin and non-smoking] people.
Cancer incidence, except for lung cancer, was the same in all three groups. Obese people had the most diabetes, and [thin and non-smoking] people had the most strokes. Ultimately, the [thin and non-smoking] group cost the most, about $417,000, from age 20 on. The cost of care for obese people was $371,000, and for smokers, about $326,000.
The results counter the common perception that preventing obesity will save health systems worldwide millions of dollars.
So there you go. In case people still think how fat someone is is any of their business…magically making us thin would cost you money.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Cold Hard Cash, Health, International, Science
Email us
I was vaguely amused while at the same time validated to see that. It just goes with what was being said earlier.. Elderly people are taxing the healthcare system way more than young fatties.
While I reject the whole concept of people being judged on the basis of their financial contribution to society, if you’re going to make those judgements, healthcare costs are only one side of the equation. If people are sick or dead, they can’t work, so while what they take away financially may be less, they’re also contributing less.
So while I don’t think this study undermines that economic argument, I think the bigger problem is with the principle of using economics to evaluate the worth of individuals.
You’re absolutely right. Thanks for pointing out the larger issue. I think tying people’s worth to money is ingrained in American culture in many ways.
The problem is that regardless of how much money that actually is, the fat-phobic argument is *still* going to be “you fatties are costing me money”.
The truth is healthcare gets more expensive the older you get. The reason obese people aren’t the most expensive to treat is because they die sooner. Saddens me.
And also, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an obese 80 year old. They must exist if they’re numbers to support this study. Older people in general love going to the doctor. It’s more of a social visit than a medical visit. I worked in a medical office for 5 years and these old people really don’t have anyone to talk to, so they make appointments to come in for no reason. A routine checkup, they’ll say. Nevermind the fact that they just had their yearly physical the month before. It really wastes the doctor’s time.
You left out this part of the article:
“The researchers found that from age 20 to 56, obese people racked up the most expensive health costs.”
Which is sad, because that should be the prime of your life. That’s not an excuse to treat anyone badly, but it is a reason to try not to be obese.
Saw this over at diet blog as well. The oldest morbidly obese person I have seen was about 56 years old.
You may not see obese older people because once past a certain age there are factors that actually cause people to lose some weight. I worked with one patient in our dialysis clinic who was in her 70s. She used to tell me where to find plus sized clothing because she had been my size earlier in her life.
What I found most interesting about that study is that obese people only live (on average) 4 years less than those who are thin. Most of the obesity scare tends to make people think that they are going to drop dead on the street when they are 35. It’s incredibly frustrating.
Spins, I second that notion. I have seen it in my own family. After a certain point it’s hard to keep muscle on your body because of the drop in growth hormones, hormones in general. I did a body composition study and discovered that most of my “extra weight” is MUSCLE. not fat. Most people don’t have near that much muscle,a nd I lift some light weights but nothing like a a pro body builder. It’s my genetics that gives me that advantage. Anyways, the more muscle you can keep on your body as you age, the better your chance of surviving into an old age. And the more fat you have in old age the more likely you’ll survive serious illness. But after a certain age it is really hard to maintain weight.
Spins, I second that notion. I have seen it in my own family. After a certain point it’s hard to keep muscle on your body because of the drop in growth hormones, hormones in general.
I third it. I never knew my grandma when she was fat, but she was for most of her adult life. Very fat. By the time I was born, however, she was average sized, and she became very thin before she died. It wasn’t because of diet and exercise; it was because she got old.
And FWIW, she lived to 87 after being “morbidly obese” for most of her life.
I fourth the bit about fewer obese older people.
My grandmother, at her highest weight on her 5’2″ body, was around 230 pounds. Without eating less or exercising, over the next four or five years, she was down to 180 pounds. She ate sausage and egg biscuits and usually an oatmeal creme pie or something else sweet for breakfast, sandwich, potato chips, and something else sweet for lunch, and a healthy dinner with dessert. Yet, the weight just fell off of her.
She was a week shy of her 73rd birthday when she died of a combination of end-stage emphysema (she smoked for over 55 years) and a massive heart attack. One of the last things she told me in the hospital was, “Amy, I weighed 178 pounds on the scale in the ER. I haven’t weighed that since I was your age.” And she was tinier than I’d ever seen her, laying in that hospital bed.
And my 91-year-old great-grandmother weighs around 130 pounds now on her 5’3″ frame. This coming down from around 170 pounds before my great-grandfather died four years ago. She eats healthy and gets some exercise, but not enough to really lose 40 pounds.
So yes, I’ve seen it happen. Maybe that’s when I’ll finally be thin. When I’m 90. lol
Me Too on the old fat people. Every woman on my mother’s side of the family is fat. And the old ones are healthy and still fat, like my 86 year old great-aunt who is nearly 300lbs and stilll walks to work every day – 1.5 miles each way. Her mother lived to be 92, also Pretty Damn Fat. And this was before modern health care and in a former Soviet state. My grandmother would have lived to be much older if she hadn’t had a freak stomach tumour that had to be removed by basically giving her a gastric bypass. (BTW, the surgeon called it a “risky, experimental surgery reserved for people in a dire condition”, not something to give to fat people to make them thin). My mother’s fat and she’s not having a hard time of menopause like her thin friends. Her bone density is awesome. I expect she’ll be pretty old when she dies.
Can I add one more to the old and fat? My grandmother had to have been considered “morbidly obese” during her 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. (At least in the 200’s.) I don’t know about the time before those ages as pictures do not exist. As she got older she did lose weight. Naturally though, never through dieting, which she did not believe in. Anyway, she probably weighed about 140 lbs when she died, AT THE RIPE OLD AGE OF 97! The Meme Roths of the world need to shut up and go away!
Oops, forgot to add, Grandma was only about 5′ 1″.
Yep, I’ve got to add another anecdote to that pattern: my fat great-grandmother and grandfather each were fat until they were elderly and then became thin in the last 10 or so years of their lives. My great-grandmother lived into her 90s. Not so my grandfather: the men on my mom’s side don’t seem make it out of their seventies. The women keep on chugging for another 20 years.
*laughing*… They seem to do this even with related-by-marriage. Perhaps they all poisoned their husbands. Good Catholic women in my family tree – divorce wasn’t an option.
No, seriously, I’m of a stocky french canadian farming genotype that I think carries that pattern, but it does seem a harder genotype for the men. Diabetes shows up more fiercely and in their 50s. Great advantages to the genotype is that we’re strong and have idiot levels of endurance and are generally healthy.
A friend of mine told me about this article she just found (although it’s a couple of months old):
http://www.fool.com/personal-finance/general/2007/11/27/6-annoying-ways-to-build-wealth.aspx
It’s about cheap ways to build wealth, via Motley Fool.
“Lose weight. Sure, joining Weight Watchers (NYSE: WTW) or a gym isn’t free, but do you know how much being overweight costs? Getting into shape (and eating well) can save you lots of money on medicines, medical copays, life insurance, and lost work time, and improve your life in a whole host of other ways. Your weight loss efforts don’t have to be expensive — think about it.”
It doesn’t say “get healthy;” it says “lose weight.” It doesn’t say “being unhealthy;” it says “being fat.” It presumes that fat people don’t eat healthy, constantly call in sick to work and don’t have any money.
Unfortunately until the language changes and people stop exchanging “fat” for “unhealthy,” I’m afraid a study like this one isn’t going to change many minds. That doesn’t mean I won’t be trotting it out every time someone says my healthy butt is costing them money. ;)
The thing I found really striking is the average ages. So the thin folks live to 84 and the fat ones only to 80. Four years is, frankly, not enough to make me want to do what I’d have to do to be thin.
I like how the smokers cost less. Now everyone can get off my back when I puff up during Martini Night.