Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program, Implementation ...

Obesity is an important risk factor for a number of chronic diseases that can lead todisability, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, and certain types of cancers. It hasalso been shown to affect work productivity and long-term disability. 4 As such, it may be animportant health indicator related to TTW participation and employment activity. To assessthe prevalence of obesity among disability beneficiaries, height and weight informationcollected in the survey are used to compute the body mass index (BMI). BMI appears tohave no relationship to employment status or TTW participation (Figure III.8). By thismeasure, 41 percent of all disability beneficiaries are obese, and another 28 percent areoverweight. While the prevalence of obesity among disability beneficiaries is somewhathigher than among the general adult population (31 percent), the overweight and obesityrates combined are similar (66 percent for the general adult population compared with 69percent for all disability beneficiaries). 5Figure III.8. Body Mass Index of Working-Age Beneficiaries, by TTW and EmploymentStatus80%70%60%69%66%68%3750%40%30%28%29%29%41%37%39%20%10%0%25.0 - 29.9 (overweight) 30+ (obese) 25+ (overweight/obesecombined)Body Mass IndexAll beneficiaries TTW participants Beneficiaries employed at interviewSource: 2004 National Beneficiary Survey.Overall, about 16 percent of beneficiaries reported that their current health is much orsomewhat better than it was at the same time last year (Figure III.9). Employed beneficiaries4 See Wolf (2002) for a summary of studies of the effects of obesity on productivity.5 See Hedley et al. (2004) for U.S. prevalence estimates of overweight and obesity based on data from theNational Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).III: Beneficiary Characteristics and Employment Perspectives