Obesity and its comorbidities: present and future importance on health status in Switzerland

The objective of this study was to estimate the proportion of various diseases attributable to obesity in Switzerland in order to get a hint of its present and future importance on health status and on our health care budgets.

The population attributable risk (PAR) for each of 17 obesity-linked conditions was estimated as the proportion of each disease condition which is attributable to obesity. The fraction of each disease that is attributable to obesity in Switzerland was calculated using the proportion (prevalence) of obesity in Switzerland and the relative risk of suffering from a given obesity-related disease in Switzerland or comparable countries.

With a PAR of 88.6% diabetes represents the disease with the highest proportion attributable to obesity in Switzerland. It is followed by a PAF of 26.8% for hypertension, 24.7% for oesophageal cancer and 24.4% for gallstones. PARs of 17.4% and 5.7% were estimated for coronary heart disease and depression.

Treatment of these first four diseases represents 89% of the total health care costs attributable to obesity in Switzerland. The impact the present obesity epidemic on health status as well as its social and economic consequences must be recognised.