1. Effects Of Childhood Obesity On Hospital Care And Costs, 1999-2005.
- Author
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Trasande, Leonardo, Yinghua Liu, Fryer, George, and Weitzman, Michael
- Subjects
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NATIONAL health insurance , *EMERGENCY medical services , *HUMAN services , *VIRUS diseases , *NATIONAL health services , *RESPIRATORY infections , *PUBLIC health , *H1N1 influenza - Abstract
Childhood obesity is increasingly recognized as an epidemic, but the economic consequences have not been well quantified. We evaluated trends in obesity-associated hospItalizations, charges, and costs using 1999-2005 data from a nationally representative sample of admissions to U.S. hospitals. We detected a near-doubling in hospitalizations with a diagnosis of obesity between 1999 and 2005 and an increase in costs from $125.9 million to 237.6 million (in 2005 dollars) between 2001 and 2005. Medicaid appears to bear a large burden of hospitalizations for conditions that occur along with obesity, while private payers pay a greater portion of hospitalization costs to treat obesity itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009
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