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Juvenile obesity and its association with utilisation and costs of pharmaceuticals - results from the KiGGS study

BACKGROUND: According to a national reference, 15% of German children and adolescents are overweight (including obese) and 6.3% are obese. An earlier study analysed the impact of childhood overweight and obesity on different components of direct medical costs (physician, hospital and therapists). To...

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Autores principales: Wenig, Christina M, Knopf, Hildtraud, Menn, Petra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3266211/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22176689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-11-340
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author Wenig, Christina M
Knopf, Hildtraud
Menn, Petra
author_facet Wenig, Christina M
Knopf, Hildtraud
Menn, Petra
author_sort Wenig, Christina M
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: According to a national reference, 15% of German children and adolescents are overweight (including obese) and 6.3% are obese. An earlier study analysed the impact of childhood overweight and obesity on different components of direct medical costs (physician, hospital and therapists). To complement the existing literature for Germany, this study aims to explore the association of body mass index (BMI) with utilisation of pharmaceuticals and related costs in German children and adolescents. METHODS: Based on data from 14, 836 respondents aged 3-17 years in the German Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS), drug intake and associated costs were estimated using a bottom-up approach. To investigate the association of BMI with utilisation and costs, univariate analyses and multivariate generalised mixed models were conducted. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between BMI groups regarding the probability of drug utilisation. However, the number of pharmaceuticals used was significantly higher (14%) for obese children than for normal weight children. Furthermore, there was a trend for more physician-prescribed medication in obese children and adolescents. Among children with pharmaceutical intake, estimated costs were 24% higher for obese children compared with the normal weight group. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to estimate excess drug costs for obesity based on a representative cross-sectional sample of the child and adolescent population in Germany. The results suggest that obese children should be classified as a priority group for prevention. This study complements the existing literature and provides important information concerning the relevance of childhood obesity as a health problem.
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spelling pubmed-32662112012-01-26 Juvenile obesity and its association with utilisation and costs of pharmaceuticals - results from the KiGGS study Wenig, Christina M Knopf, Hildtraud Menn, Petra BMC Health Serv Res Research Article BACKGROUND: According to a national reference, 15% of German children and adolescents are overweight (including obese) and 6.3% are obese. An earlier study analysed the impact of childhood overweight and obesity on different components of direct medical costs (physician, hospital and therapists). To complement the existing literature for Germany, this study aims to explore the association of body mass index (BMI) with utilisation of pharmaceuticals and related costs in German children and adolescents. METHODS: Based on data from 14, 836 respondents aged 3-17 years in the German Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS), drug intake and associated costs were estimated using a bottom-up approach. To investigate the association of BMI with utilisation and costs, univariate analyses and multivariate generalised mixed models were conducted. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between BMI groups regarding the probability of drug utilisation. However, the number of pharmaceuticals used was significantly higher (14%) for obese children than for normal weight children. Furthermore, there was a trend for more physician-prescribed medication in obese children and adolescents. Among children with pharmaceutical intake, estimated costs were 24% higher for obese children compared with the normal weight group. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to estimate excess drug costs for obesity based on a representative cross-sectional sample of the child and adolescent population in Germany. The results suggest that obese children should be classified as a priority group for prevention. This study complements the existing literature and provides important information concerning the relevance of childhood obesity as a health problem. BioMed Central 2011-12-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3266211/ /pubmed/22176689 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-11-340 Text en Copyright ©2011 Wenig et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Wenig, Christina M
Knopf, Hildtraud
Menn, Petra
Juvenile obesity and its association with utilisation and costs of pharmaceuticals - results from the KiGGS study
title Juvenile obesity and its association with utilisation and costs of pharmaceuticals - results from the KiGGS study
title_full Juvenile obesity and its association with utilisation and costs of pharmaceuticals - results from the KiGGS study
title_fullStr Juvenile obesity and its association with utilisation and costs of pharmaceuticals - results from the KiGGS study
title_full_unstemmed Juvenile obesity and its association with utilisation and costs of pharmaceuticals - results from the KiGGS study
title_short Juvenile obesity and its association with utilisation and costs of pharmaceuticals - results from the KiGGS study
title_sort juvenile obesity and its association with utilisation and costs of pharmaceuticals - results from the kiggs study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3266211/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22176689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-11-340
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