BMI and Healthcare Cost Impact of Eliminating Tax Subsidy for Advertising Unhealthy Food to Youth
2015
Children in the U.S. are exposed to thousands of food-related TV advertisements, most of which promote nutritionally poor foods and drinks. Food marketers spend millions of dollars on youth-directed television each year, and these advertising expenditures are currently treated by the U.S. government as ordinary business expenses, meaning they receive a tax subsidy of nearly $80 million. This study estimated the cost-effectiveness of eliminating this tax subsidy. Using a simulation model, the authors found that this would reduce an aggregate 2.13 million body mass index (BMI) units in the U.S. population, and cost $1.16 per BMI unit reduced. Over a 10-year period, the intervention would result in $352 million in healthcare cost savings.
BMI and Healthcare Cost Impact of Eliminating Tax Subsidy for Advertising Unhealthy Food to Youth
Source:
Sonneville KR, Long MW, Ward ZJ, Resch SC, Wang YC, Pomeranz JL, Moodie ML, Carter R, Sacks G, Swinburn BA, Gortmaker SL. BMI and Healthcare Cost Impact of Eliminating Tax Subsidy for Advertising Unhealthy Food to Youth. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2015; 49 (1): 124-134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2015.02.026
Not open access.