In: Nursing
Topic: Obesity
Title: How cost effective is medical intervention compared to supportive-care in treating obesity disease in the US for the past 10 years.
Topic: Obesity
Title: How cost effective is medical intervention compared to supportive-care in treating obesity disease in the US for the past 10 years.
Examine how each medical strategy works to prevent the disease; and make reference to at least two scholarly article.
Answers :
Overview :
Obesity is a complex disease involving an excessive amount of body fat. Obesity isn't just a cosmetic concern. It is a medical problem that increases your risk of other diseases and health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and certain cancers.
There are many reasons why some people have difficulty avoiding obesity. Usually, obesity results from a combination of inherited factors, combined with the environment and personal diet and exercise choices.
The good news is that even modest weight loss can improve or prevent the health problems associated with obesity. Dietary changes, increased physical activity and behavior changes can help you lose weight. Prescription medications and weight-loss procedures are additional options for treating obesity.
Obesity treatments have been viewed as frivolous, ineffective or highly expensive. However, the rising, avoidable cost of leaving obesity untreated may exceed the costs of treatments.
Cost-effectiveness :
Cost-effectiveness Cost-effectiveness, or ‘efficiency’, analysis estimates net benefits in relation to cost in a real-life, or routine-care setting. A ‘treatment’ or management has costs that may include investigations, monitoring and multidisciplinary support. For some diseases, and treatments such as bariatric surgery for obesity, there may be need for life-long support. The aim of treatment is to prevent some future medical consequences of obesity. This has two economic components. First, better quality of life, for longer, which is quantified using ‘QALYs’ (quality-adjusted life years; a QALY is the estimated number of future years during which the person enjoys perfect quality of life). Delaying a consequence of obesity, such as diabetes, will add QALYs, and the amount can be computed from epidemiological data on the incidence of diabetes in relation to sex, age and BMI. The second economic outcome is the reduction in lifetime healthcare costs that result from delaying secondary medical consequences. For a consequence such as diabetes, this can be very large. This cost -avoidance offsets the cost of treatment when computing the cost per QALY gained.
The cost-saving and cost-avoidance from realistic interventions :
There are few short-term economic savings from effective weight management, but savings emerge through a reduced burden of secondary diseases attributable to obesity (especially type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), CHD, colon cancer, arthritis and depression). These are all multifactorial conditions that develop over time. In thinner people, including those who have lost weight, they all develop more slowly with a longer disease-free span before healthcare costs arise.
Obesity prevention strategies:
Whether you're at risk of obesity, currently overweight or at a healthy weight, you can take steps to prevent unhealthy weight gain and related health problems. Not surprisingly, the steps to prevent weight gain are the same as the steps to lose weight: daily exercise, a healthy diet, and a long-term commitment to watch what you eat and drink.
Conclusions:
Individual annual financial allowances for weight loss interventions to be considered cost-effective is relatively low; however, as a large proportion of the population is affected, wide cheap societal interventions are important.
Reference :
1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK220174/
2) http://www.healthycommunitieshealthyfuture.org/learn-the-facts/economic-costs-of-obesity/
3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3786743/