Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Lawyers Blog
According to a report by NCCI Holdings, Inc., a workers’ comp ratings and research organization, the duration of benefits paid to obese workers who injury themselves is five times greater than those paid to claimants who are not obese, but who filed comparable claims.
An article on Workforce.com states that the report analyzed claims from insurance companies in 40 states and controlled for issues like primary ICD-9 code, injury year, the state where the claimant resided, industry, gender, and age.
The NCCI report said, “The study shows that, based on temporary total and permanent total indemnity benefit payments, the duration of obese claimants is more than five times the duration of nonobese claimants.”
These results are similar to findings from a 2007 Duke University Medical School study. In that study, researchers found that obese workers files more claims, have higher medical costs, and miss more work days due to job-related injuries than workers who are not obese.