HHS HealthBeat (June 7, 2007)

Overweight and injury-prone

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Being big raises your risk of being hurt badly enough to need medical care. A study finds injuries are more common among overweight people, and the risk goes up with the amount of overweight.

Justin Trogdon of the research firm RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, found that in a review of survey data on medical bills between 1999 and 2002. The survey is run by HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

``The rate of injury for a normal-weight person would be about one in five people. If you looked at the heaviest class that we looked at, the rate is about 2,500 in 10,000 – so about one in four.’’  (9 seconds)

But for some types of injuries, the very obese had about twice the risk.

The study is in the American Journal of Health Promotion.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May 7, 2011