RAND Roybal Center for Health Policy Simulation

The Consequences of Obesity for Older Americans

Objectives

To study the health consequences of obesity among the elderly;
Develop a geographic database of food prices useful for future analyses;
To study the unique determinants of weight among older Americans.

Progress to Date

In our first year of funding, we achieved objectives 1 and 2, as detailed in our last progress report. To summarize: in accordance with objective 1, we have completed a study published in Health Affairs, “The Health and Cost Consequences of Obesity Among the Elderly;” in accordance with objective 2, we constructed a geographic database of food prices.

This year, we turned our attention to objective 3. We have written a paper, entitled “Retirement and Weight” documenting the links among retirement, physical activity, food intake, and weight among the elderly. This paper was presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Health Economists (ASHE), in Madison, WI. In addition, since the full scope of this aim exceeds what is feasible under this pilot project, we applied for, and were awarded, an R01 grant from NIA to study obesity and weight gain among the elderly. We will use these funds in conjunction with the remaining pilot funding to explore this aim more broadly.

Research Products

Lakdawalla, Darius, Dana Goldman, and Baoping Shang, “The Health and Cost Consequences of Obesity among the Elderly,” forthcoming, Health Affairs.

Goldman, Dana, and Darius Lakdawalla. “Retirement and Weight.” Working Paper, RAND Corporation. Presented at 2006 American Society for Health Economists Annual Meeting, Madison, WI, June 2006.

Geographic database of food prices in the US, 1989-2000.

Next Steps

We will continue our work on Objective 3, particularly on studying the causal links between health shocks and weight gain, using the new R01 grant in conjunction with the remaining pilot funding. This project is considered complete from the Center pilot by the end of year 2.