Health-care costs of underweight, overweight and XXXX : Australian population-based study.

@entity1 @entity28
AIM: @entity1 health varies with body mass index (BMI), but it is unknown by what age or how much this attracts additional population health-care costs. We aimed to determine the (1) cross-sectional relationships between BMI and costs across the first decade of life and (2) in longitudinal analyses, whether costs increase with duration of underweight or @entity28 . METHODS: @entity1 : Baby (n = 4230) and Kindergarten (n = 4543) cohorts in the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian @entity1 . OUTCOME: Medicare Benefits Scheme (including all general practitioner plus a large proportion of paediatrician visits) plus prescription medication costs to federal government from birth to sixth (Baby cohort) and fourth to tenth (Kindergarten cohort) birthdays. PREDICTOR: biennial BMI measurements over the same period. RESULTS: Among Australian @entity1 under 10 years of age, 5-6% were underweight, 11-18% overweight and 5-6% @entity28 . Excess costs with low and high BMI became evident from age 4-5 years, with normal weight accruing the least, @entity28 the most, and underweight and overweight intermediate costs. Relative to overall between- @entity1 variation, these excess costs per @entity1 were very modest, with a maximum of  94 per year at age 4-5 years. Nonetheless, this projects to a substantial cost to government of approximately  13 million per annum for all Australian @entity1 aged less than 10 years. CONCLUSIONS: Substantial excess population costs provide further economic justification for promoting healthy body weight. However, @entity28 @entity1 's low individual excess health-care costs mean that effective treatments are likely to increase short-term costs to the public health purse during childhood.
