The impact of weight gain or loss on health care costs for employees at the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies.

Abstract

To quantify the impact of weight gain or weight loss on health care costs. Employees completing at least two health risk assessments during 2002 to 2008 were classified as adding, losing, or staying at high/low risk for each of the nine health risks including overweight and obesity. Models for each risk were used to compare cost trends by controlling for employee characteristics. Employees who developed high risk for obesity (n = 405) experienced 9.9% points higher annual cost increases (95% confidence interval: 3.0%-16.8%) than those who remained at lower risk (n = 8015). Employees who moved from high to lower risk for obesity (n = 384), experienced annual cost increases that were 2.3% points lower (95% confidence interval: -7.4% to 2.8%) than those who remained high risk (n = 1699). Preventing weight gain through effective employee health promotion programs is likely to result in cost savings for employers.