Cost of Inaction on Obesity
Why treating obesity matters: the cost of inaction in Canada
Nearly one in three Canadians is affected by the disease of obesity. Despite its widespread impact, obesity often goes untreated, leading to significant personal, societal, and economic consequences.
Failing to recognize and treat obesity as a chronic disease has driven its economic cost to $27.6 billion—20% higher than previously estimated.
Why aren’t we doing more to treat and prevent obesity in Canada?
Canadians living with obesity face widespread weight bias and weight-based discrimination as the disease continues to be perceived as self-inflicted. In reality, obesity is influenced by genetics, the environment, and the societal systems we live in.
Despite leading medical associations including the Canadian Medical Association, the American Medical Association, and the World Health Organization all recognizing obesity as a chronic disease, no Canadian province or territory officially recognizes it as such.
Canada’s current healthcare system lacks the interdisciplinary support needed for effective obesity management, despite clear benefits outlined in treatment guidelines. Evidence-based treatment options like intensive behavioral therapy, surgery, and prescription medications are available but remain underutilized or inaccessible to all who need them.
Untreated obesity and Canada’s healthcare system
Individuals living with obesity have significantly higher rates of doctor visits, specialist consultations, emergency room visits, hospital stays, and prescription drug use compared to those without obesity, further straining healthcare system resources.
- $5.9 billion is the cost associated with 19 million more physician visits, among other care and support needs
- $639 million is the cost associated with 10,000 seniors entering long-term care due to obesity-related diseases
Untreated obesity undermines Canada’s economic future
Indirect costs of obesity have reached an estimated $21.7 billion due to increased absenteeism and presenteeism, additional disability pension payments, reduced productivity, lower workforce participation, and premature death.
In addition to the medical and financial implications, more than half of those living with obesity face social and psychological implications due to weight bias and discrimination.
- $8.2B in economic losses from reduced workforce participation
- $3.8B in reduced personal income among employed individuals with obesity
- $2B in potential lost wages as a result of premature obesity-related deaths, taking an estimated 45,200 individuals from the workforce
45% of adults with obesity and an associated disability did not work in the past year, potentially costing the Canadian Pension Plan millions annually.
Despite these costs, fewer than 20% of Canadians with private drug benefit plans have access to obesity treatment medications approved by Health Canada.
The economic gender-disparity of obesity
Despite more men living with obesity, the disease has a greater impact on women’s salaries and their ability to work—further exacerbating other economic gender disparities.
Women living with obesity are 5.3% less likely to be employed compared to women without obesity. In men, this disparity is only 0.3%. Women with obesity are also 16 times more likely to experience discrimination compared to men.
Women with obesity earn as much as 12% less annually than women without obesity. In fact, an increase of 10% in a woman’s BMI decreases her income by 6%, resulting in $3.8B in estimated lost income and government tax revenue.1
Obesity is a chronic disease—it’s time to act
For too long, obesity has been misunderstood, simplified, and stigmatized, preventing millions of Canadians from accessing the care they deserve, and preventing Canada from realizing its economic potential. It’s time to recognize obesity for what it is—a complex, chronic disease—and treat it with the evidence-based care it demands.
Effective obesity treatments exist, but policymakers and employers must increase access to improve health outcomes, and reduce the significant economic burden obesity places on individuals and society.
The first step is for Canada to formally acknowledge and recognize obesity as a chronic disease. Only then can we truly reshape the narrative, and reduce stigma and blame, ensuring people living with obesity are supported.
Join us in advocating for change, fighting stigma, and building a Canada where health is not defined by size, but by the ability to thrive.
About the Modelling the Cost of Inaction in Treating Obesity in Canada report
The report, commissioned by Obesity Canada and funded by Lilly Canada, combined data from national surveys and published literature to estimate the 2023 economic burden of obesity. It compared adults with obesity (BMI≥30) to those with healthy weight (18.5 ≤ BMI < 25), and assessed healthcare costs, absenteeism, presenteeism, disability pensions, mortality-related costs, workforce participation, and earnings. Canadian data were used where possible, supplemented by U.S. data, standardized to 2023 CAD$.
