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
. 2015 Sep 9;10(9):e0135990.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0135990. eCollection 2015.

Healthcare Costs Associated with an Adequate Intake of Sugars, Salt and Saturated Fat in Germany: A Health Econometrical Analysis

Toni Meier  1 , Karolin Senftleben  1 , Peter Deumelandt  1 , Olaf Christen  1 , Katja Riedel  2 , Martin Langer  2
Affiliations

Healthcare Costs Associated with an Adequate Intake of Sugars, Salt and Saturated Fat in Germany: A Health Econometrical Analysis

Toni Meier et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) represent not only the major driver for quality-restricted and lost life years; NCDs and their related medical treatment costs also pose a substantial economic burden on healthcare and intra-generational tax distribution systems. The main objective of this study was therefore to quantify the economic burden of unbalanced nutrition in Germany--in particular the effects of an excessive consumption of fat, salt and sugar--and to examine different reduction scenarios on this basis. In this study, the avoidable direct cost savings in the German healthcare system attributable to an adequate intake of saturated fatty acids (SFA), salt and sugar (mono- & disaccharides, MDS) were calculated. To this end, disease-specific healthcare cost data from the official Federal Health Monitoring for the years 2002-2008 and disease-related risk factors, obtained by thoroughly searching the literature, were used. A total of 22 clinical endpoints with 48 risk-outcome pairs were considered. Direct healthcare costs attributable to an unbalanced intake of fat, salt and sugar are calculated to be 16.8 billion EUR (CI95%: 6.3-24.1 billion EUR) in the year 2008, which represents 7% (CI95% 2%-10%) of the total treatment costs in Germany (254 billion EUR). This is equal to 205 EUR per person annually. The excessive consumption of sugar poses the highest burden, at 8.6 billion EUR (CI95%: 3.0-12.1); salt ranks 2nd at 5.3 billion EUR (CI95%: 3.2-7.3) and saturated fat ranks 3rd at 2.9 billion EUR (CI95%: 32 million-4.7 billion). Predicted direct healthcare cost savings by means of a balanced intake of sugars, salt and saturated fat are substantial. However, as this study solely considered direct medical treatment costs regarding an adequate consumption of fat, salt and sugars, the actual societal and economic gains, resulting both from direct and indirect cost savings, may easily exceed 16.8 billion EUR.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: KR and ML are paid employees of BRAIN AG. This does not alter the adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The authors declare that no financial conflict of interest was present with regard to the results or interpretation of the reported experiments. Further, they declare that this does not alter the permission of unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Healthcare costs associated with an overconsumption of MDS, salt and SFA (incl. 95% confidence interval).
Fig 2
Fig 2. Healthcare costs associated with an overconsumption of MDS, salt and SFA according to diseases (incl. CI95%).
Fig 3
Fig 3. Predicted healthcare cost savings depending on different reduction levels of excessively consumed MDS, salt and SFA as well as the same scenario with a 50% salt sensitivity (incl. CI95%).
Fig 4
Fig 4. Attributable healthcare expenditure due to an excessive intake of MDS, salt and SFA from 2002 to 2008 (incl. 95%CI), single presentation.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Attributable healthcare expenditure due to an excessive intake of MDS, salt and SFA from 2002 to 2008 (incl. 95%CI and regression towards 2020), aggregated presentation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. WCRF. Food, nutrition, physical activity and the prevention of cancer: A global perspective: a project of World Cancer Research Fund International; American Institute for Cancer Research: Washington, D.C, 2007.
    1. Murray CJ, Vos T, Lozano R, Naghavi M, Flaxman AD, Michaud C, et al. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) for 291 diseases and injuries in 21 regions, 1990–2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. The lancet. 2013, 380 (9859): 2197–2223. - PubMed
    1. Steffen W, Richardson K, Rockström J, Cornell SE, Fetzer I, Bennett EM, et al. Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet. Science. 2015, 347(6223): 1259855 10.1126/science.1259855 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kastner T, Rivas MJI, Koch W, Nonhebel S. Global changes in diets and the consequences for land requirements for food. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2012, 109(18): 6868–6872. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Meier T, Christen O, Semler E, Jahreis G, Voget-Kleschin L, Schrode A, et al. Balancing virtual land imports by a shift in the diet. Using a land balance approach to assess the sustainability of food consumption. Germany as an example. Appetite. 2014, 74:20–34. 10.1016/j.appet.2013.11.006 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms