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Childhood obesity-related costs skyrocketed, hospitalizations nearly doubled
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Between 2001 and 2005, the hospital costs for obese children increased from $125.9 million to $237.6 million, according to a Health Affairs study that tracked trends in childhood obesity on hospital care and costs.
Researchers also identified a near-doubling in hospitalizations of youth aged 2 to 19 with a diagnosis of obesity between 1999 and 2005 — from 21,743 to 42,429.
Data were compiled using the 1999–2005 National Hospital Discharge Survey Nationwide Inpatient Sample. The definition of an obesity-associated hospitalization was a discharge for which obesity was listed as a diagnosis (ICD-9 codes 278.00 or 278.01).
Obesity was associated with significantly greater length of hospital stay (0.85 days), charges ($1,634) and overall costs ($727).
Significant increases in obesity-related hospitalizations were identified for diabetes as well as appendicitis, asthma, biliary tract disease, mental disorders, pneumonia, pregnancy-related conditions and skin/subcutaneous tissue infections.
“Although hospitalizations for diabetes, appendicitis, skin/subcutaneous tissue infections and biliary tract disease did increase over the same time period, the annual increases for obesity-associated hospitalizations within these diagnostic categories consistently exceeded the annual increases in all hospitalizations,” the researchers wrote.
Medicaid appears to “bear a large burden of hospitalizations with a secondary diagnosis of obesity,” according to the researchers. In 2005, children hospitalized with a diagnosis of obesity cost Medicaid $118.1 million compared with $53.6 million in 2001 — a 120% increase.
Trasande L. Health Aff. 2009;28:751-760
Results suggest that, despite increasing awareness of childhood obesity, obesity remains undercoded in hospitals, researchers said.
“The trends described are to be interpreted with caution because they could represent trends in diagnosis rather than an increase in patients in which obesity is causing other medical conditions,” they wrote. “Even if increased recognition has contributed to these trends, our analysis suggests that obesity has a much more immediate impact on the health of children, especially adolescents, than previously understood.”
Trasande L. Health Aff. 2009;28:751-760.