Obesity continues to be considered as a modern-day epidemic, as more than one third of children and adolescents in the U.S. are overweight or obese. Now, researchers have figured out estimated total lifetime medical costs per child.

"Reducing childhood obesity is a public health priority that has substantial health and economic benefits," says Dr. Eric Andrew Finkelstein from the Duke Global Health Institute. "These estimates provide the financial consequences of inaction and the potential medical savings from obesity prevention efforts that successfully reduce or delay obesity onset."

One of Finkelstein's co-authors, Dr. Rahul Malhotra, says that since "most obese children and teenagers remain obese into adulthood," reducing obesity among children is key for addressing the public health issue of obesity.

The researchers claim that childhood obesity costs $19,000 more than lifetime costs for normal weight children. They also have multiplied the price by the number of obese 10-year-olds in the nation: lifetime costs for that age group alone came out to be roughly $14 billion. However, there may be a limitation to the study, in that they only included direct medical costs for obesity in their analysis, including doctors' visits and medication. The researchers did not take into account indirect costs, such as absenteeism and lost productivity in working adults.

It is more than the price tag -- obesity is linked to a number of serious illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and cancers. "Public health interventions should be prioritized on their ability to improve health at a reasonable cost," says Finkelstein. "In order to understand the cost implications of obesity prevention efforts, it is necessary to accurately quantify the burden of childhood obesity if left untreated."

"While the cost estimates are significant," he adds, "the motivation to prevent childhood obesity should be there regardless of the financial implications."