Merriam Webster dictionary defines obesity as a condition that is characterized by excessive accumulation and storage of fat in the body and that in an adult is typically indicated by a body mass index of 30 or greater (Merriam-Webster, 2015). In the United States, health costs related to obesity continue to rise and public impact is significant.
“Obesity has become a public health issue because the consequences of obesity in terms of higher risk of morbidity and mortality for an individual translate into increased medical care costs, not only for the individual but also for society, and these costs are both large and growing” (Okrent and Alston, 2012). In North Carolina adult obesity rates have increased from 12.3% in 1990 to 29.4% in 2013. North Carolina now ranks eighth in the United States for obesity related diabetes and eleventh for obesity related hypertension (Levi, Segal, Laurent and Rayburn, 2014). Below is a table that compares North Carolina with two of its neighboring states.
State Rank Among States Adult
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As stated in National Medical Spending Attributable to Overweight and Obesity: How Much, and Who’s Paying?, spending is greatest for Medicare recipients, presumably because the elderly obese are more likely to undergo costly obesity- related services than the nonelderly obese are. Following Medicare, Medicaid has the next highest per capita spending estimate attributable to obesity. Medicaid recipients may be more likely than the privately insured are to engage in behavior that complicates obesity treatment, including smoking cigarettes and over- consuming alcohol. Medicare and Medicaid also have generous insurance cover- age, encouraging people to seek more treatment for all services, including those associated with obesity (Finkelstein, Fiebelkorn, Wang,