Obesity More Expensive for Women

[Lindsay]

eptember 27, 2010, 2:55 pm

Obesity More Expensive for Women

By TARA PARKER-POPE

Economists at George Washington University have tabulated the cost of obesity and discovered a surprising gender gap: It’s more expensive for a woman to be obese than for a man, as Roni Rabin reports in today’s Vital Signs column.

While a man racks up $2,646 annually in extra expenses if he is obese, a woman’s obesity costs her $4,879, almost twice as much. Much of the gender gap is due to lower wages for obese women, who earn less relative to similar working women who are not obese, according to the analysis.

The study also found that the more overweight you are, the more expensive life gets. The incremental costs faced by obese women are nine times higher than those for overweight women. For obese men, the costs are six times higher than those of overweight men.

To learn more read “Obesity Costs Women More, Study Finds.” You can also read the original report, “A Heavy Burden: The Individual Costs of Being Overweight and Obese in the United States.”