Assessing Health Burden of Overnutrition: A Survey of the Literature

This rapid emergence of overnutrition is expected to pose a major health challenge. Overnutrition imposes both health and economic burden. Overnutrition increases the risk of non-communicable diseases and has an adverse impact on the health outcomes such as longevity, mortality, quality of life, etc. The policy implication of this study is that the policy makers can reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases and improve health outcomes by addressing the rise in overweight and obesity prevalence. Effects of overnutrition on the health status is expected to be heterogenous across regions and a uniform health policy may not be appropriate. Therefore, government can design different policies based on the nutritional status of the state to improve the health conditions.

Allison, D.B., Fontaine, K.R., Manson, J. E., Stevens, J. and VanItallie, T. B. (1999), “Annual Deaths Attributable to Obesity in the United States”, Journal of the American Medical Association”, 282(16): 1530–38. Andreyeva, T., Michaud, P. C. and Soestc, A. V. (2007), “Obesity and Health in Europeans Aged 50 years and Older”, Public Health, 121: 497–509. Bansal, S. and Zilberman, D. (2016), “Does Health Care Expenditure Counter Adverse Effects of Obesity on Health: Evidence from Global Data”, Presented on January 6-8, 2017 at Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting Chicago, Illinois. Brunello, G., Michaud, P. C. and Galdeano, A. S. (2009), “The Rise of Obesity in Europe: An Economic Perspective”, Economic Policy, 24(59): 551-596. Colditz, G.A., Willett, W. C., Rotnitzky, A. and Manson, J. E. (1995), “Weight Gain as a Risk Factor for Clinical Diabetes Mellitus in Women”, Annals of Internal Medicine, 122(7): 481-6. Dhana, K., Nano, J., Ligthart, S., Peeters, A., Hofman, A., Nusselder, W., Dehghan, A. and Franco, O. H. (2016), “Obesity and Life Expectancy with and without Diabetes in Adults Aged 55 Years and Older in the Netherlands: A Prospective Cohort Study”, PLOS Medicine, 13(7): 1-13. Flegal, K. M., Williamson, D. F., Pamuk, E. R. and Rosenberg, H. M. (2004), “Estimating Deaths Attributable to Obesity in the United States”, American Journal of Public Health, 94(9): 1486–89. Fontaine, K. R., Redden, D. T., Wang, C., Westfall, A. O. and Allison, D. B. (2003), “Years of Life Lost Due to Obesity”, Journal of the American Medical Association, 289(2): 187-93. Geiss, L. S., Kirtland, K., Lin, J., Shrestha, S., Thompson, T., Albright, A. and Gregg, E. W. (2017), “Changes in Diagnosed Diabetes, Obesity, and Physical Inactivity Prevalence in US Counties, 2004-2012”, PLOS One, 12(3): e0173428.