|
Obese employees more likely to file compensation claims |
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, 25 April 2007 |
|
A new study released today shows that obese employees are more likely to file workers' compensation claims for injuries sustained at work.
The study, conducted by Dr. Truls Ostbye and colleagues from Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, North Carolina, examined 11,728 healthcare and university employees who had completed at least one health risk assessment questionnaire between 1997 and 2004. The assessment included a measure of height and weight, allowing the researchers to calculate the body mass index (BMI) of the employee in each case.
The researchers found that workers with higher BMIs tended to file more workers' compensation claims than those with BMIs in the recommended range. It also found that those employees in the group with the highest BMI of 40 or greater had twice the rate of claims as those recommended BMI.
In addition to the making more compensation claims, those in the highest BMI group compared with those in the normal BMI group as follows:
- Number of lost workdays was almost 13 times higher
- Medical claims costs were 7 times higher
- Indemnity claims were 11 times higher
The study results come at a time when many employers and healthcare insurance providers are beginning to offer bariatric surgery to those people who are morbidly obese, in an effort to tackle long term healthcare costs. However, apart from the cost of financing such weight loss surgery, the higher cost to employers of meeting the increased compensation claims from obese employees has raised fears that employers may shy away from employing obese job applicants.
| Comments () >> |
 |
 |
![[أربيك]](http://www.lipo.com/websitetranslator/images/flag_ar.gif){kind=small}
