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
. 2024 Nov 6;21(1):127.
doi: 10.1186/s12966-024-01677-5.

The case for investment in nutritional interventions to prevent and reduce childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity in Peru: a modelling study

Maria Elena Ugaz  1 , Christina L Meyer  2 , Angela M Jackson-Morris  3 , Daphne Wu  3 , M Michelle Jimenez  1 , Carlos Rojas-Davila  1 , Carlos Orlando Zegarra Zamalloa  1 , Elizabeth F Ludwig-Borycz  4 , D'Arcy Williams  5 , Jo Jewell  5
Affiliations

The case for investment in nutritional interventions to prevent and reduce childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity in Peru: a modelling study

Maria Elena Ugaz et al. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. .

Abstract

Background: Between 2006 and 2016 the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents aged 5-19 years in Peru increased from 22.7 to 27.0%. This investment case quantifies the economic impacts of childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity in Peru. It identifies and quantifies the potential impact of a set of new or expanded interventions that can strengthen current national efforts to prevent and reduce child and adolescent overweight and obesity.

Methods: A deterministic Markov cohort model with a societal cost perspective estimated reductions in mortality and morbidity from implementing interventions to prevent and reduce child and adolescent overweight and obesity and the impact in savings in healthcare costs and gains in wages and productivity. Interventions identified through a review of published literature includes a school-based social marketing campaign, exclusive breastfeeding promotion and support, a healthy food and drink policy for school premises, and a 20% subsidy on fruits and vegetables for people living below the national poverty line. The return on investment (ROI) was calculated along with the estimated cost savings associated with the interventions. Analysis was conducted to test ROI sensitivity to changes in the key parameters and assumptions.

Results: Between 2025 and 2092, the expected combined direct and indirect healthcare costs attributable to child and adolescent overweight and obesity in Peru are 210.6 billion USD. The direct healthcare costs are 1.8 billion USD, and the indirect costs are 208.8 billion USD. Expected savings for all interventions combined is 13.9 billion USD with a per-person savings of 12,089.8 USD. The expected ROI of the four interventions combined is 39.3 USD (30-years), 64.6 USD (50-years), and 164.1 USD (66-years) per one USD invested.

Conclusions: The overweight and obesity epidemic among children and adolescents in Peru requires wide-ranging and expanded implementation of policies to achieve long-term reductions in prevalence. This study's findings show that the four priority interventions have high ROIs and can be used to guide policy to address the complex interplay of factors that contribute to the obesogenic environment.

Keywords: Adolescents; Children; Economics; Interventions; Investment; Obesity; Overweight; Peru.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

References

    1. Prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents. BMI > + 1 standard deviations above the median (crude estimate) (%). [cited 2023 May 19]. https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-details/GHO/preva...).
    1. Cote AT, Harris KC, Panagiotopoulos C, Sandor GGS, Devlin AM. Childhood obesity and cardiovascular dysfunction. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2013;62(15):1309–19. - PubMed
    1. Bacha F, Gidding SS. Cardiac abnormalities in youth with obesity and type 2 diabetes. Curr Diab Rep. 2016;16(7):1–9. - PubMed
    1. Morrison KM, Shin S, Tarnopolsky M, Taylor VH. Association of depression & health related quality of life with body composition in children and youth with obesity. J Affect Disord. 2015;172:18–23. - PubMed
    1. Beck AR. Psychosocial aspects of obesity. NASN School Nurse. 2016;31(1):23–7. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources