Cost of overweight and obesity in Estonia

               Author : Margit Partei 

In my paper, I studied the cost of overweight and obesity in Estonia. Many similar studies have been published before for numerous countries but never before for a small post-Soviet eastern European country with relatively poor health indicators and relatively low healthcare expenditures like Estonia. Prevalence based top-down cost-of-illness method and Estonian Health Insurance cost data for healthcare services and medications of 11 diseases associated with excess body weight – cancer of colon, breast and endometrium, type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease, stroke gallstones and osteoarthritis – is used.

The results show the economic burden of overweight and obesity in 2015 was €45,5 million (0,22% of GDP, 3,7% of healthcare expenditures, €35 per capita). In the USA such cost has usually been around 1% of GDP and in Europe around 0,5% of GDP. It appears the total cost of overweight and obesity in Estonia is more comparable to less developed countries (Thailand, Mexico) than the western world. While the cost of overweight and obesity is not yet as large as in other European countries or the USA, it is still a serious warning sign from the viewpoint of public health, especially considering rising prevalence of overweight and obesity in the population. To create incentives to live a healthier lifestyle and therefore alleviate the problem of obesity Pigouvian tax solutions – taxes on unhealthy food and drink products and taxes based on body weight – are proposed.