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the views or policies of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), the Asian Development
Bank (ADB), its Board of Directors, or the governments they represent. ADBI does not guarantee
the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequences
of their use. Terminology used may not necessarily be consistent with ADB official terms.
Matthias Helble
Senior Economist, Co-Chair, Research Department
Asian Development Bank Institute
13/07/2018
5
What we know about obesity?
Prevalence and Determinants
Asia-Pacific is becoming fatter...
Overweight Obesity
.6
.6
Prevalence rate
Prevalence rate
.4
.4
.2
.2
0
East South East South Central Pacific 0 East South East South Central Pacific
7
Women and Men not equally affected...
10
The Costs of Obesity
in Asia and the Pacific
Costs of overweight and obesity (BMI ≧ 25)
Direct costs:
Higher health care costs (medical expenditures) for the
person and health care system.
Indirect costs:
All costs due to absenteeism from work, lower productivity
at work, disability costs and costs due to higher mortality.
12
Costs of Overweight and Obesity
• Few studies for developing Asia
• Some recent studies:
Zhao et al, 2008 PRC 2003 D+I 3.7 % 2,74 billion USD
Ko, 2008 Hong Kong 2002 D+I 8.2–9.8 % 430 million USD
Lee et al, 2012 Korea, Rep. 2011 D - 2,13 billion Won
Lee et al, 2015 Korea, Rep. 2013 D+I - 6,77 billion Won
Chung, 2017 Korea, Rep. 2013 D - 0,54 billion Won
Pitaya. et al, 2014 Thailand 2009 D+I 1.5 % 725 million USD
13
Direct costs in Asia and Pacific
Main data challenges:
• Few countries with data on costs of medical procedures
• Few countries with household level data on medical
expenditures available
Solution:
• Collect sparse data and check for correlation with deflators,
e.g. GDP per capita.
• Approximation of direct cost based on existing data for
developed countries (e.g. Japan) and adjusted for lower GDP
per capita.
14
Direct Costs in South East Asia
% of Total Health
Country Value Care % of GDP
Brunei 76,900,000 16.27 0.43
Cambodia 2,415,455 0.27 0.02
Indonesia 450,000,000 1.68 0.05
Lao PDR 1,429,996 0.66 0.01
Malaysia 1,090,000,000 8.40 0.34
Myanmar 5,002,899 0.39 0.01
Philippines 145,000,000 1.17 0.05
Thailand 640,000,000 3.80 0.15
Viet Nam 53,500,000 0.44 0.03
15
Indirect Costs of Overweight and Obesity
Indirect costs caused by higher absenteesim, lower productivity,
disability and mortality costs:
• Higher level of absenteeism observed in United States and
European countries (e.g. Bungum et al, 2003; Wolfenstetter et al,
2011; Neovius et al, 2012)
• Relationship stronger for women than for men (Finkelstein et al,
2005).
• Obesity-related job absenteeism costs US business 4.3 billion USD
(Cawley, 2007, JOEM).
• Lower productivity costs US business 31 billion USD every year
(Finkelstein et al., 2010).
16
Indirect costs of overweight and obesity
• Based on the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) metric from the
2010 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study.
• DALYs measure the life lost due to premature death (mortality) as
well as the time lived with disability (morbidity).
• Calculated as the sum of years of life lost due to premature
mortality (YLL) in the population and the equivalent of healthy
years lost due to disability (YLD):
= +
• DALY represents a year loss of healthy life.
• Method developed by Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
(IHME)
17
Indirect costs of overweight and obesity
18
Indirect costs for South East Asia
Country DALY all Contribution Productive % of health Percentage
diseases of years lost care expend. of GDP
overweight due to
& obesity obesity
Brunei 72,185 0.81 585 5.5 0.1
Cambodia 5,736,940 0.31 17,795 2.0 0.1
Indonesia 72,340,657 1.05 1,771,258 10.4 0.3
Lao PDR 2,635,899 0.42 11,002 8.1 0.2
Malaysia 63,836,217 0.09 59,586 4.9 0.2
Myanmar 19,078,657 0.52 99,270 9.0 0.2
Philippines 28,205,496 0.73 204,948 4.6 0.2
Singapore 763,405 0.50 3,852 1.6 0.1
Thailand 19,075,344 0.47 89,665 3.3 0.1
Viet Nam 21,840,038 0.27 58,439 0.9 0.1
Source: Helble and Francisco (2017)
19
Total costs for South East Asia (2013)
Country Estimated direct costs % Estimated indirect
of health care expend. costs % of health care
expend.
Brunei 2.2 5.5
Cambodia 1.1 2.0
Indonesia 1.5 10.4
Lao PDR 1.1 8.1
Malaysia 2.0 4.9
Myanmar 1.3 9.0
Philippines 1.4 4.6
Singapore 1.5 1.6
Thailand 1.7 3.3
Viet Nam 1.1 0.9
Source: Helble and Francisco (2017)
20
Key Takeaways
1. In Asia and the Pacific economic growth has been accompanied by
a rapid increase in overweight and obesity.
2. People in poorer countries suffer most from obesity.
3. Low-income groups are quickly catching up.
4. Both conditions cause high direct and indirect costs for
households, firms and governments.
5. ADBI estimates costs 12.4 % of total health care expenditures or
0.8% of gross domestic product in the region.
6. Fiscal policies to curb obesity complemented by other measures.
21
Many thanks.
Questions?
Policies to Fight Obesity
Multifaceted Policies to Curb Obesity
Improve intake of food and nutrition:
• Healthy school foods
• Regulate advertising of unhealthy foods
• Nutritional labelling
• Zoning of restaurants
• Taxes on unhealthy foods (ex. sugar tax)
Promote physical activity and healthy lifestyle:
• Make physical activity easier, safer, and more attractive
• Reduce TV watching and videogaming
• Use new technologies (e.g. Pokemon Go)
• Incentive schemes in health insurance
24
McFlurry Time vs. Smart Swaps
25
Fiscal Policies
26
Asian Countries with SSB Taxes or Plans
Obesity (adult Overweight
Countries SSB Policy Status
2016) (adult 2016)
Maldives 8.6% 30.6% Has import tarrifs on energy and soft drinks
27
Price of Foods
28
Pathways for the effect of fiscal policy interventions
29
Fiscal policy development and
implementation framework
30
Source: WHO (2015)
Conclusion
31
Overweight as major risk factor...
DALYs Loss Attributable to High BMI, both Sexes, All Ages, ADB Member
Countries, 2013
32
Overweight as major risk factor for diabetes...
33
Costs of Overweight and Obesity
Direct costs: Health care costs (medical expenditures)
• Health care costs associated with obesity vary between 2-5 % in Europe and
between 5-8 % in the United States.
• Medical expenses 2,741 USD higher for obese Americans (Cawley and
Meyerhoefer, 2012, JHE).
• Studies for Asia:
Authors Country Year Costs as % of health Absolute costs
spending
Zhao et al, 2008 PRC 2003 3.7 % 2,74 billion USD
Ko, 2008 Hong Kong 2002 8.2–9.8 % 430 million USD
Kang et al, 2011 Korea 2005 - 1,1 billion USD
Lee et al, 2012 Korea 2011 4.6 % 2,128 billion Won
Pitaya. et al, 2014 Thailand 2009 1.5 % 725 million USD
Source: Helble and Francisco (2017)
34
Direct costs in Asia and Pacific