Attributable cost of obesity in breast surgery: a matched cohort analysis

The purpose of this study was to determine the economic impact of obesity on patients undergoing mastectomy and breast conservation (BC) for breast cancer.

An analysis of female patients greater than or equal to 18 years undergoing mastectomy and BC for breast cancer between 2004 and 2010 using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample was conducted.

Of 55,903 patients in our study (49,985 mastectomy, 5,918 BC), 3,308 patients (5.92%) were obese. After propensity score matching, the cost for obese patients was higher at $1,826 (P < .0001) for mastectomy and $1,702 for BC (P < .0001). These costs were not significantly associated with overall complications and length of stay for mastectomy in the matched comparison group and not associated with overall complications and minimally associated with longer length of stay in the BC group.

By controlling for other patient factors, this study shows that obesity is attributable to a significantly higher cost for both BC (29%) and mastectomy (23%).