OBJECTIVES: Global overweight and obesity pose critical public health challenges with associated chronic diseases. Mexico's high prevalence strains healthcare and the economy. We evaluate the economic impact and underscore the need for effective prevention and treatment strategies.

METHODS: This research used secondary data sources. We used data from the 2022 National Health and Nutrition Survey to determine the proportion of overweight individuals. A comprehensive literature review identified diseases causally related to overweight and obesity, emphasizing cohort studies. We calculated attributable risk proportion (ARP) to estimate the proportion of risk directly attributable to excess weight. Annual incidence and prevalence of diseases were estimated, assuming a similar distribution of overweight and obesity between patients and the general population. We used healthcare cost analysis studies to assess the economic impact, adjusted to 2023 values.

RESULTS: The study identified 27 diseases associated with overweight and obesity. It estimated the annual number of new and prevalent cases for each condition and their attributable fraction to excess weight. We estimate that 16.04 million patients had complications caused by overweight and obesity in Mexico, of which 1.3 million were new cases in 2023. We evaluated the total annual healthcare cost for all patients affected by these weight-related diseases to be $13.94 billion, with healthcare costs for new cases in the last year reaching $2 billion. This cost constitutes 19.3% of the country's total healthcare expenditure. Cardio-renal-metabolic diseases account for 76.1% of the overall cost of conditions resulting from overweight and obesity, with higher healthcare costs for women due to their higher prevalence of excess weight and several gender-specific diseases linked to overweight and obesity.

CONCLUSIONS: Cardio-renal-metabolic diseases dominate the cost burden, emphasizing the need for comprehensive strategies to mitigate the economic impact of obesity. This study underscores the inextricable link between public and financial health and the unsustainable consequences of inaction.