OBESITY AND THE ECONOMICS OF PREVENTION: FIT NOT FAT

KEY FACTS MEXICO, UPDATE 2014

A.

ADULTS

1. More than 70% of adults are overweight in Mexico, a higher proportion than in any other
OECD country. About 32% of adults are obese, the second highest rate in the OECD, after the
United States (36.5%). Overweight and obesity rates increased steadily since 2000 in both men
and women.
Figure 1. Trends in the prevalence of overweight (including obesity) in adults, selected OECD
countries
75%
- - - Past projection
New data points

70%

Mexico

65%

Australia

Rate of overweight

60%
55%
Canada

50%
USA

England

45%

Spain
40%
Italy

35%

France

30%

Switzerland

25%
1972

1976

1980

1984

1988

1992

Korea
1996

2000

2004

2008

2012

2016

2020

Year
Source: OECD estimates based on national health surveys.
Note: Measured height and weight in Australia, England, Korea, Mexico and USA; self-reported data in other
countries.

2. Overweight and obesity have different social patterns in men and women in Mexico. Men with
lower levels of education are less likely to be obese than more educated men. In contrast, women
with less education are more likely to be obese than more educated women (Figure 2). However,
this gradient is observed in women living in urban, but not in rural, areas (Smith and Goldman,
2007; Perez et al., 2014).
Figure 2. Rates of obesity by education level in 2006 and 2012, men and women, Mexico

Obesity rate

Low education

Medium

High education

50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
2006

2012

2006

Men

2012

Women

Source: OECD estimates based on the Mexican survey Encuesta Nacional de Salud y Nutricin
Note: Adjusted probabilities of obesity for men and women aged 40 (controlling for marital status, indigenous
minority status, tobacco smoking, and working status).

3. Individual prevention programmes could avoid up to 47 000 deaths from chronic diseases every
year. Deaths avoided could increase to 55 000 if different interventions were combined in a
comprehensive prevention strategy. An organised programme of counselling of obese people by their
family doctors would also lead to an annual gain of over 150 000 years of life in good health.
Figure 3. Health outcomes of prevention, average effect per year, Mexico
school-based interventions
food adverting self-regulation

mass media campaigns

Life years in
good health
(DALYs)

food labelling
worksite interventions

Life years

food advertising regulation

fiscal measures
physician counselling

153

physician-dietician counselling
0

20,000

Source: OECD estimates.

2

40,000

60,000

4. How much does prevention cost? How much does it save? Most prevention programmes would cost
less than MXN 3.5 bn every year, with individual counselling by family doctors costing up to MXN
19 bn. Most prevention programmes will cut health expenditures for chronic diseases, but only by a
relatively small margin (up to MXN 3.9 bn per year).
Figure 4. Economic effects of prevention, average effect per year, Mexico
20,000

Cost (million MXN)

15,000

10,000
5,000
0

-5,000
fiscal
meas

food
label

food
adv slfrg

mass
media
camp

food
adv reg

schoolbased
int

worksit
e int

phys
couns

physdiet
couns

19256

intervention costs

37

443

864

183

1595

3362

9071

health expenditure

-1782

-831

93

-734

115

-623

-972

-601

-3890

net cost

-1745

-388

101

130

299

972

2389

8470

15366

Source: OECD estimates.

5. Is prevention cost-effective? Prevention can improve health at a lower cost than many treatments
offered today by OECD health systems. In Mexico, all of the prevention programmes examined will
be cost-effective in the long run relative to internationally accepted standards corresponding to
around MXN 640 000 per year of life gained in good health. However, some programmes will take a
longer time to produce their health effects and therefore will be less cost-effective in the short run.

Figure 5. Cost-effectiveness of prevention, Mexico

Cost (MXN) per life year gained in good health
(DALY)

1,600,000

more than 2,000,000 MXN/DALY

1,280,000

960,000

640,000 MXN / DALY

50,000 USD / DALY

640,000

320,000

Cost-effectiveness after 10 years

Cost-effectiveness after 100 years

Source: OECD estimates.

3

B.

CHILDREN

6. Child overweight rates in Mexico are among the highest in the OECD area. International data
collated by the International Association for the Study of Obesity show that almost 1 in 3 children
is overweight in Mexico, compared with 23% of boys and 21% of girls, on average, in OECD
countries (Figure 3).
Figure 6. Measured overweight (including obesity) among children at different ages, 2010 or
nearest year
Boys

Greece
Italy
New Zealand
Slovenia
United States
Mexico
Hungary
Portugal
Chile
Spain
Canada
Korea
Israel
Finland
China
OECD33
Japan
Luxembourg
UK (England)
Australia
Ireland
India
Iceland
Germany
Switzerland
Austria
Russian Federation
Netherlands
Belgium
Poland
Denmark
Sweden
Estonia
Czech Republic
France
Slovak Republic
Brazil
Norway
Turkey
South Africa
Indonesia

Girls

32

23

10

34 36
34
34

38

44

30
30
2829
28
23
27 29
2627
24 26
2425
25
20
24
20
24
19
24
16
21 23
23
17
2223
22
26
22 24
21 23
19 21
21
13
20
20
17 19
18
18
17
17
15 17
14 17
17
11
16
20
16 18
16
16
1516
15
15
15
15
15
15
1415
13
19
11
29
11

20

30

40
50
% of children

Source: International Association for the Study of Obesity, 2013; Bs et al. (2004) for Luxembourg; and KNHANES
2011 for Korea.

References:
Smith K, Goldman N (2007). Socioeconomic differences in health among older adults in Mexico.
Social, Science & Medicine 65 (7): 13721385.

Perez Ferrer C, McMunn A, Rivera Dommarco JA, Brunner EJ (2014). Educational Inequalities
in Obesity among Mexican Women: Time-Trends from 1988 to 2012. PLoS ONE 9(3): e90195.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0090195

Release: 27 May 2014. http://www.oecd.org/health/obesity-update.htm.

For more information, please contact: Franco.Sassi@oecd.org,
Michele.Cecchini@oecd.org.

Marion.Devaux@oecd.org

or