Obesity and the Emergency Short Stay Unit

Direct healthcare cost of obesity in developed countries have been estimated at 2 –7% of total healthcare costs and $830 million annually for treating obesity and its consequences in Australia (Kam and Taylor, 2010). Obesity has been directly related to increased resource consumptions (Raebel et al., 2004; Chen et al., 2007b; Reidpath et al., 2002), while associations between h ealth service consumption and obesity have also been reported (Popoola, 2004; Bertakis and Azari, 2005). In particular, increased resource utilisation has been associated with higher admission rates and longer length-of-stay associated with obesity (Kam and Taylor, 2010).
Source: International Emergency Nursing - Category: Nursing Authors: Source Type: research