By Kim Hyun-bin
Obesity is becoming a serious health issue in Korea costing over 11 trillion won each year in socioeconomic costs.
According to the National Health Insurance Corp. (NHIC), over 11.4 trillion won was spent due to obesity in 2016 alone, accounting for 0.7 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) that year.
The NHIC compiled data on 10.1 million patients who did not have obesity-related diseases during health check-ups from 2003 to 2004, and kept monitoring their health through 2015.
Medical expenses took up over 5.88 trillion won, or 51 percent of the total socioeconomic costs; followed by costs arising from low productivity at 20.5 percent;, that from productivity losses, 13.1 percent; early death, 10 percent; and nursing expenses, 4.3 percent.
Productivity loss occurs when overweight people have to take leave from work to get treatment for their diseases, which decreases manpower and productivity.
“Out of the total cost, medical expense accounted for 51.3 percent, which shows that the obesity problem is one of the main health tasks we need to deal with,” NHIS President Kim Young-ik said.
The costs by overweight people in their 50s took over 26.8 percent of the total, followed by people in their 60s, 40s, 70s and 30s.
More men were overweight than women, as the socioeconomic costs they incurred took up 56.6 percent, or 6.9 trillion won.
Among costs for medical expenses, that for diabetes accounted for 22.6 percent, or 2.6 trillion won, followed by high blood pressure at 21.6 percent, ischemic heart diseases at 8.7 percent and arthropathy at 7.8 percent.
Obese people in South Jeolla Province spent the largest amount on medical costs at 338,000 won each, followed by those in North Jeolla Province at 325,000 won, Busan with 316,000 won and Gangwon Province with 307,000 won.
“The socioeconomic costs caused by obese people are continuously rising,” said Chung Young-ki, chief of the health promotion department at the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
“In the case of medical costs, the total rose by 1.5 trillion won within the last three years. To most effectively tackle obesity, people need to better manage their lives, which will prevent them from gaining too much weight. However, we are also planning to launch comprehensive measures to better tackle the issue.”
As a part of measures to reduce obesity rates, the government plans to ban TV shows and other advertisements that encourage binge eating before 11 p.m.
Currently the programs and radio commercials for unhealthy food products are banned between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., when children are the main audience.
Starting next year, the ministry plans to hand out incentives in the form of free gym coupons and healthcare vouchers for overweight people who initiate healthy eating habits and health management.
The participants are rated on points and the incentives are given out when they reach a required score. The project will be implemented for three years on a trial basis.