Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Jan-Feb;31(1):1-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2008.09.012. Epub 2008 Oct 23.

The impact of obesity on health care costs among persons with schizophrenia

Lydia A Chwastiak  1 , Robert A Rosenheck, Joseph P McEvoy, T Scott Stroup, Marvin S Swartz, Sonia M Davis, Jeffrey A Lieberman
Affiliations

The impact of obesity on health care costs among persons with schizophrenia

Lydia A Chwastiak et al. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2009 Jan-Feb.

Abstract

Background: Obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States and is twice as common among individuals with schizophrenia as the general population.

Methods: Data from the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness, a multisite trial of antipsychotic pharmacotherapy in 1460 patients with schizophrenia, were used to examine the relationships between body mass index (BMI) and medical costs.

Results: ANCOVA analyses found significant increases in both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric medication costs associated with increasing BMI and a significant, but smaller, difference in costs of outpatient medical-surgical service utilization: US$41 per month for morbidly obese patients compared to US$26 per month for patients of normal weight (F=2.4, P=.04). In multivariable logistic regression analyses, morbid obesity was associated with significantly increased odds of any outpatient medical-surgical service costs. When compared to observations of BMI>35, BMI observations within the normal range (18.5-24.9) were half as likely to be associated with any outpatient medical-surgical costs (OR=0.53; 95% CI=0.45, 0.63).

Conclusions: In this large sample of persons with schizophrenia, obesity was associated with increased outpatient general medical service and medication costs even after controlling for demographic characteristics and medical comorbidity, but the absolute dollar amount was small.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Must A, Sandano J, Coakley EH, Field AE, Colditz G, Dietz WH. The disease burden associated with overweight and obesity. JAMA. 1999;282:1523–1529. - PubMed
    1. Finkelstein EA, Fiebelkorn IC, Wang G. National medical spending attributable to overweight and obesity: how much, and who’s paying? Health Aff. 2003;22:219–226. - PubMed
    1. Sturm R. The effects of obesity, smoking and drinking on medical problems and costs. Health Aff. 2002;21:245–254. - PubMed
    1. Colditz GA, Willett WC, Rotnitzky A, Manson JE. Weight gain as a risk factor for clinical diabetes in women. Ann Intern Med. 1995;122:481–486. - PubMed
    1. Huang Z, Willett WC, Manson JE, Rosner B, Stampfer MJ, Speizer FE, Colditz GA. Body weight change and risk for hypertension in women. Ann Intern Med. 1998;128:81–88. - PubMed

Publication types