One of the biggest epidemics in the United States would probably have to be obesity.  According to the CDC the percent of adults who are 20 years and older who are obese is 35.1%.  If you take that one step further and look at the number of adults 20 years or older who are overweight and obese that number climbs to 69%, way more than half of American adults.

Obesity not only affects your overall health and wellness but has a dramatic effect on workers compensation claims as well.  First lets look at what can be done to help curb the obesity issue; dietary modifications and exercise can help to reduce obesity.  Educational classes can also be of value if there are any wonders about what the best foods and drinks to be consuming are.

When there is a workers compensation claim and you add in the co-morbidity of obesity to the claim the claim is expected to have a longer duration, higher medical spend, and not a maximum recovery effort.  Obesity makes it hard for treating physicians to focus just on the injury at hand because they now need to account for other things and treatment patterns.

Let us look at a hypothetical example.  A worker falls in the scope of their employment and injures their knee.  The seek treatment from their physician and because of the fact the they are obese the normal course of treatment now has to change because the doctor does not want that extra weight being put on the knee causing stress to the damage in it.  He now needs to look at a plan of action that will keep the injured worker out on comp that much longer, have to include more physical therapy, causing more expenses and claim duration than that of a healthy weight adult.

Studies have shown that obese workers tend to file twice as many workers comp claims as their healthy co-workers.  Miss more days of work due to an injury and are more likely to have an injury leading to permanent disability.

Understandably some people who are obese are self-conscious about their body image and that can lead to them not wanting to get in a gym or start an exercise program.  One thing to remember is that everyone has started from somewhere and the important thing is taking that step to be healthier.  You will not only feel better and look better, but have a better quality of life and a longer life.  It would be great to see the the number of obese adults decline for the overall health and wellness of our country.