Treating obesity with all available evidence-based tools ultimately costs less than not treating it, according to panellists during a webinar hosted by Benefits Canada and sponsored by Eli Lilly Canada Inc. in collaboration with Obesity Canada.
Dr. Akshay Jain (pictured right), a clinical and research endocrinologist, provided an overview of obesity — a chronic, progressive, relapsing disease that affects nearly one in three Canadians and has been described as “the mother of all chronic disease.”
“Obesity is not just a disease by itself. . . . You can close your eyes and point to any part of the body and chances are that obesity can cause organ dysfunction in that part of the body,” he said.
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Specifically, obesity is associated with more than 200 chronic illnesses, from cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes to respiratory disease, osteoarthritis, cancer and certain mental-health conditions. As a result, said Dr. Jain, it’s imperative to start treatment early and target root causes rather than offering band-aid solutions.
“Obesity is something that occurs way upstream and, if we let it progress, if we don’t treat it appropriately, then downstream, there can be a whole lot of metabolic, mechanical and mental complications that can arise because of this.”
Since obesity is so pervasive and has such far-reaching health impacts, the costs of failing to treat it are extremely high. Also speaking during the webinar, Tim Dall (pictured left), executive director of GlobalData, said his organization’s modelling estimates the incremental annual price of inaction at $27.6 billion, including $5.9 billion in direct medical costs and $21.7 billion in indirect costs.
People with obesity are more likely to miss work (absenteeism) and have reduced work activity (presenteeism), costing employers $682 million and $6.8 billion, respectively. Women with obesity, in particular, experience a 5.3 per cent decrease in labour force participation, as well as four per cent lower earnings, representing $3.8 billion in lost income.
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“It’s just too expensive not to address this problem and this problem will just get bigger over time if we don’t address it now,” said Dall.
Sharing his experience as both director of advocacy for Obesity Canada and a person living with obesity, Ian Patton (pictured centre) highlighted the bias and discrimination associated with a disease that continues to be viewed as self-inflicted instead of, as it is, the result of complex interactions between genetic, environmental, biological, behavioural and social factors.
Even well-meaning workplace initiatives, such as weight loss challenges, can be counterproductive, he noted, because they reinforce the misconception that simply eating less and moving more is the solution to obesity.
Patton emphasized that obesity isn’t caused by a lack of willpower and can’t be treated with diet and exercise alone. Rather, clinical practice guidelines point to three pillars — pharmacotherapy, bariatric surgery and psychological intervention — that support behavioural changes.
“It’s a complex condition. There’s no single treatment that’s going to be effective for everyone, . . . but we do need access to evidence-based treatments. Right now, in our community, there’s a lot of frustration in that we don’t have access to a lot of these available and effective treatments.”
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