Healthcare usage and economic impact of non-treated obesity in Italy: findings from a retrospective administrative and clinical database analysis

作者：Colao Annamaria; Lucchese Marcello; D%apos; Adamo Monica; Savastano Silvia; Facchiano Enrico; Veronesi Chiara; Blini Valerio; Esposti Luca Degli; Sbraccia Paolo

来源：BMJ Open, 2017, 7(2): e013899.

DOI：10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013899

Objectives: Investigate the prevalence of obesity in Italy and examine its resource consumption and economic impact on the Italian national healthcare system (NHS).
Design: Retrospective, observational and real-life study.
Setting: Data from three health units from Northern (Bergamo, Lombardy), Central (Grosseto, Tuscany) and Southern (Naples, Campania) Italy.
Participants: All patients aged >= 18 years with at least one recorded body mass index (BMI) measurement between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2012 were included.
Interventions: Information retrieved from the databases included primary care data, medical prescriptions, specialist consultations and hospital discharge records from 2009-2013. Costs associated with these data were also calculated. Data are presented for two time periods (1 year after BMI measurement and study end).
Primary and secondary outcome measures: Primary-to estimate health resources consumption and the associated economic impact on the Italian NHS. Secondary-the prevalence and characteristics of subjects by BMI category.
Results: 20 159 adult subjects with at least one documented BMI measurement. Subjects with BMI >= 30 kg/m(2) were defined as obese. The prevalence of obesity was 22.2% (N= 4471) and increased with age. At the 1-year observation period, obese subjects who did not receive treatment for their obesity experienced longer durations of hospitalisation (median length: 5 days vs 3 days), used more prescription drugs (75.0% vs 57.7%), required more specialised outpatient healthcare (mean number: 5.3 vs 4.4) and were associated with greater costs, primarily owing to prescription drugs and hospital admissions (mean annual cost per year per patient: [SIC]460.6 vs [SIC]288.0 for drug prescriptions, [SIC]422.7 vs [SIC]279.2 for hospitalisations and [SIC]283.2 vs [SIC]251.7 for outpatient care), compared with normal weight subjects. Similar findings were observed for the period up to data cut-off (mean follow-up of 2.7 years).
Conclusions: Untreated obesity has a significant economic impact on the Italian healthcare system, highlighting the need to raise awareness and proactively treat obese subjects.

• 出版日期2017-2