Obesity and Corporate America: Getting to Solutions

The consequences of the everincreasing numbers of people afflicted by obesity are continuing to emerge. They range from the impact on society through increasing health care costs and chronic illness burden to the ways individuals are affected by reduced function and quality of life. Business and industry are not shielded from these consequences either. For example, obesity is associated with lower productivity, higher absenteeism rates, higher disability rates, and higher health care costs (8). However, employee interests also are affected because obesity is associated with lower wages, lower family earnings, lower functional status, discrimination, and social stigmaI all of which can have an enormous impact on a person’s life (8). In the context of the workplace and the workforce, obesity has been identified as a major threat to the economic productivity of a company, the local community, and the nation as a whole.