cd20-0122_Supplementary_Materials.docx (92.99 kB)
Download fileRevisiting the Obesity Paradox in Healthcare Expenditures Among Adults with Diabetes
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posted on 2022-01-21, 16:27 authored by Virender Kumar, William E. Encinosa IIIRecent studies of diabetes suggest an obesity
paradox: mortality risk increases with weight in people without diabetes but decreases
with weight in people with diabetes. A recent study also reports the paradox more
generally with health care utilization. Whether this paradox in health care
utilization and spending is causal or instead the result of empirical biases
and confounding factors has yet to be examined in detail. This study set out to
examine changes in the relationship between BMI and health care expenditures in
populations with versus without diabetes, controlling for confounding risk
factors. It found that the obesity paradox does not exist and is the result of statistical
biases such as confounding and reverse causation. Obesity is not cost-saving
for people with diabetes. Thus, insurers and physicians should renew efforts to
prevent obesity in people with diabetes.