According to one study conducted by Duke University, obese workers filed twice the number of workers’ compensation claims, had seven times higher medical costs from those claims, and had 13 times more lost workdays due to injury or illness than non-obese employees.
And according to research conducted by the American Diabetes Association, the annual cost of diabetes in 2017 was $327 billion, including $237 billion in direct medical costs and $90 billion in decreased worker productivity, which is important to note since more than 90% of diabetes cases are Type 2, which is strongly associated with obesity.
