Healthy people 'more of a drain on NHS because they live longer'

Published on Monday 4 February 2008 21:18

PREVENTING obesity and smoking costs healthcare services more because patients live years longer, a study has revealed.

Dutch researchers found the health costs of thin and healthy people in adulthood are more expensive than those of either fat people or smokers.

The scientists created a model to simulate lifetime health costs for three groups of 1,000 people. These were the "healthy-living" group (thin and non-smoking), obese people, and smokers.

On average, healthy people lived 84 years. Smokers lived about 77 years, and obese people lived about 80 years. The researchers found that from the age of 20 to 56, obese people racked up the most expensive health costs. But because both the smokers and the obese people died sooner than the healthy group, it cost less to treat them in the long run.

Ultimately, the thin and healthy group cost the most, about 211,000, from age 20 on. The cost of care for obese people was 188,000, and for smokers, about 165,000.

The results, published in the Public Library of Science Medicine counter the common perception that preventing obesity will save healthcare services worldwide billions.

Pieter van Baal, an economist at the Netherlands' National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, who led the study, said: "It was a small surprise. But it also makes sense. If you live longer, then you cost the health system more."

Patrick Basham, a professor of health politics at Johns Hopkins University in the United States , said: "This throws a bucket of cold water on to the idea that obesity is going to cost trillions of dollars.

"If we're going to worry about the future of obesity, we should stop worrying about its financial impact."

But obesity experts said that fighting the epidemic was about more than just saving healthcare providers money.