Thought Leadership In Action

There’s no doubt the U.S. has a serious obesity epidemic and statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show just how enormous – and costly – this preventable health problem is. About 36% of adult Americans are now obese, placing them at high risk of some of the leading causes of preventable death including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer.

This translates into a heavy economic burden for both individuals and their employers. Government figures reveal obese workers’ health woes cost American companies $225.8 billion per year due to productivity losses. In all, each obese employee costs his or her employer $460 to $2,500 in obesity-related medical expenses and sick days per year.

Despite the popularity of special diets touted for weight control, why are too many Americans heavier instead of slimmer and trimmer? New research from the Stanford University School of Medicine could explain the core problem. It turns out that a lack of physical activity may be a bigger cause of the obesity epidemic than diet.

Americans are Increasingly Inactive

A team of Stanford researchers headed by Uri Ladabaum, MD, associate professor of gastroenterology, analyzed data from the CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and discovered huge increases in both obesity and inactivity over the last several decades. Surprisingly, there was not an increase in the overall number of calories consumed. The study, which was recently published in the American Journal of Medicine, involved 17,430 health survey participants from 1988 through 1994 and from approximately 5,000 participants each year from 1995 through 2010.

“What struck us the most was just how dramatic the change in leisure-time physical activity was,” Dr. Ladabaum said, “Although we cannot draw conclusions about cause and effect from our study, our findings support the notion that exercise and physical activity are important determinants of the trends in obesity.” The research subjects recorded the frequency, duration and intensity of their exercise within the previous month. The Stanford investigators considered getting about 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise or more than 75 minutes a week of vigorous exercise to be the “ideal” amount of activity for individuals. Unfortunately, few Americans studied met this goal. In fact, the study revealed an alarming decrease in activity for both men and women. The percentage of women who reported being totally sedentary climbed from 19% to 52% between 1988 and 2010; the percentage of inactive men rose from 11% to 43% over the same period.

During the same years, obesity also increased dramatically, from 25% to 35% in women and from 20% to 35% in men. Moreover, by 2010, 61% of women and 42% of men had excess belly fat, up from 46% and 29%, respectively, in 1988. During this same period, even the number of women who had normal weights showed a worrisome increase in fat around their middles. Yet, despite all these weighty changes, the number of calories the survey participants ate showed hardly any change at all.

Inactivity’s Link to the Workplace

In a media statement, Pamela Powers Hannley, MPH, editor of the American Journal of Medicine, cited the Stanford study as “a clarion call.” She acknowledged that obesity is a complex problem linked to numerous societal factors and simply telling people to exercise 30 minutes a day isn’t enough to solve the problem. “It’s going to take widespread change,” Hannley said. “We shouldn’t just tell patients they need to work out. We need to work with communities, employers and local governments to enable healthy lifestyles by ensuring that there are safe spaces to exercise that are cheap or free.”

While the Stanford study doesn’t specifically discuss a workplace association with inactivity, the findings back up other data suggesting that employers should look for ways to encourage workers to move around more in the workplace, take walks during their breaks, and pursue exercise during their leisure time. The American Heart Association points out, for example, that the modern-day workplace tends to encourage a sedentary lifestyle with 83% of full-time U.S. workers spending five days a week in a sedentary job. What’s more, sedentary jobs have increased dramatically since 1950 and physically active jobs now make up only about 25% of the U.S. workforce.

To help organizations encourage employees to not only exercise in their off hours but to be less sedentary in the workplace where possible, the American Heart Association's website has created a Fit-Friendly Worksite program with free tools such as fitness trackers for employees and materials human resource leaders can use to help promote wellness programs to employees. For more information, check it out here.