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Vital Signs

Facts & Figures - Dollars and sense

A nonprofit think tank called the Milken Institute recently released a report called Unhealthy America, capturing the economic impact of seven chronic diseases—cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke, mental disorders, and pulmonary conditions such as asthma. These diseases exact a human toll, of course, but also the very measurable financial toll highlighted below.

$1.3 trillion
Annual economic losses in the U.S. due to these seven diseases (including both treatment costs and lost productivity)

162 million
Number of cases of these seven chronic diseases in the U.S.

42%
Estimated increase in the number of cases by 2023

40 million
Number of those cases that could be avoided by making modest improvements in prevention and treatment

$1.1 trillion
Estimated annual savings by 2023 if those improvements are made

1 & 2
Rank of obesity and smoking among the preventable causes of these seven diseases

2,500
Number of Vermont and New Hampshire families participating in a Dartmouth study to assess influences on adolescent obesity

July 4, 2008
Date on which the DHMC campus will become totally tobacco-free


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