Classical-mainly arguments, the danger to individual and public health not seem to work, as childhood obesity continues to grow worldwide. Researchers at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, published a study this week in the journal Pediatrics that uses an argument that can’t remain indifferent to many: economic.

An estimate of the lifetime medical costs of an obese child provides a benchmark of the potential per capita savings that could accumulate from successful childhood obesity prevention efforts.

According to their work, based on six published studies, a child who is obese at age 10 will generate over its life over 13,000 Euros more in medical costs than a normal weight child keeps in him over time. The incremental lifetime direct medical cost from the perspective of a 10-year-old obese child relative to a 10-year-old normal weight child ranges from $12 660 to $19 630 when weight gain through adulthood among normal weight children is accounted for and from $16 310 to $39 080 when this adjustment is not made.

Childhood obesity, a big problem for the US: one in five children in America are obese.

Researchers led by Raul Malhotra go further and make an estimate of what this figure means when applied to the current rate of childhood obesity in the U.S. and the number is shocking: more than 10,000 million. It is the only comparison that make readers awareness of the problem of childhood obesity. In a country where university education is a concern for many parents, due to cost, the researchers note that the full cost of college fails maxing generated per child childhood obesity.

Although only a minority of obese children grow into healthy adults, researchers have made ​​an estimate based alternative possibility that rare. Thus, the figure would be lowered to 9,000 euros per obese child ten years.

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