It's no wonder that insurers and employers are interested in initiatives that help overweight employees shed pounds and thus consume fewer health care services.
And a number of wellness programs have sought to bring spouses covered by the employer-sponsored insurance into the fold.
But so far very few have pondered involving employee children in wellness programs.
But why not? An unhealthy child costs a company and its insurance policy money.
Insurance giant Humana recently announced it is offering employers a program aimed at helping children lose weight. It comes at a time when an estimated third of U.S. children are overweight or obese.
The implications of child obesity include more than higher health care costs for parents, employers and insurers.
Overweight kids are more likely to miss school and thus more likely to force parents to miss work caring for them.
And of course, the burden of taking care of an unhealthy child takes an emotional toll on parents.
Recently, some wellness advocates have suggested that workplace wellness programs have neglected to target the psychological and emotional wellbeing of employees.
The Humana program, in-keeping with the young generation it will be targeting, will be run by Kurbo, a mobile app.
It includes a food tracker and a virtual coach that gives kids advice on how to stay healthy. It even offers a weekly chat with a consultant via phone or video.
The pitfalls of trying to encourage child weight loss can be extreme, and require a more delicate touch than strategies aimed at adults. Kids who don't have a nuanced grasp of healthy eating may respond to calorie-counting by simply substituting unhealthy, small snacks for nutritious meals.
And too much pressure can run the risk of producing eating disorders.
Kurbo costs $75 a month or $180 for three months. So far, only 1,000 children have gone through the program.
A pilot study found the 500 kids who completed the program in the first five months of 2015 lost an average of 4.4 pounds over seven weeks.
"We have discovered through the last year that employers really do care about this and that they are willing to pay," Kurbo founder Joanna Strober told FastCoexist.com. "Having an overweight child is a really stressful experience, and so when an employer offers something that can help parents, they are really appreciative."
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