Overweight workers were more likely to have claims involving injuries to the back, wrist, arm, neck, shoulder, hip, knee, and foot than other employees.
The findings were based on eight years of data from 11,728 people employed by Duke and its health system. Researchers found that workers with higher body mass indexes, or BMIs, had higher rates of workers' compensation claims.
The most obese workers -- those with BMIs of 40 or higher -- had the highest rates of claims and lost workdays. BMI is a measure of height and weight. A 6-foot, 300-pound person, for example, has a BMI of just over 40.
Study coauthor Dr. Truls Ostbye said the findings should encourage employers to sponsor fitness programs.
"There are many promising programs," Ostbye said. "We'd like to see more research about what is truly effective."
James Hill, who heads the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado, said managers will pay attention to the findings because injuries mean more immediate financial losses than the future healthcare costs of diabetes and heart disease.
"When you see that claims rates double, I think that's going to get people's attention," Hill said.
But there isn't enough good information about employer-sponsored programs that work, said John Cawley, an expert in the economics of obesity at Cornell University. Employers don't know whether paying for nutrition counseling, obesity surgery, or antiobesity drugs through health insurance makes economic sense, he said.
"It's now apparent to everybody that obesity is a big problem," Cawley said. "But the research isn't there to know where to get biggest bang for the buck."
