Chapter 8: Obesity: Causes, Consequences and Public Policy Solutions
Author: Robert Kaestner, IGPA and professor of economics at UIC
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Obesity is one of our nation’s most pressing public health problems. The prevalence of obesity among children and adults has increased exponentially over the past 30 years, adults have experienced a 150 percent increase since the early 1970s and rates among children have risen by nearly 300 percent during the same period. The challenges are no different in Illinois, where obesity rates generally mirror national trends.
Increases in obesity pose specific policy problems as a result of the serious health conditions with which they are associated. These conditions raise the cost of health care for all and place a large burden on public health funds. Reducing obesity to its 1987 levels would save the U.S. approximately $200 billion.
Robert Kaestner discusses his chapter (transcript-PDF)
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The condition may have other, non-medical costs as well. Obesity has been shown to reduce the overall quality of life for affected individuals and may even be a cause of lower educational achievement and lower earnings, for example, because of discrimination against obese persons.
The causes of obesity are simple: too many calories consumed and too few calories expended. Technological advances over the past 30 years have made it cheaper and easier to consume more calorie-rich foods, while simultaneously making it cheaper and easier to expend fewer calories each day. In effect, the voluntary modernization of our society has contributed to the overall rise in obesity. Prohibitive or restrictive measures aimed at attempting to reverse these fundamental trends in an effort to limit obesity are misguided and ineffective.
The key to fighting obesity is quality education, especially during childhood. Research suggests that the best indicator of adult well-being is an individual’s cognitive ability as a child. Indeed, there is a positive association between years of completed schooling and health. Specific education in how to lead a healthy lifestyle is important. However, it appears that general education, cognitive development, even the ability to delay gratification early in life, are the most crucial factors in ensuring a healthy child matures into a healthy adult.
