Maastricht Uni retracts €79 billion obesity cost claim over conflict-of-interest
Maastricht University has withdrawn a 2022 news release claiming that overweight and obesity cost Dutch society 79 billion euros annually, after investigations revealed the figure was significantly inflated compared with international research.
The university confirmed the retraction in response to the investigative report The Weight-Loss Experiment by Zembla. A university spokesperson said, “The amount of 79 billion euros should not have been used. It does not come from the scientific article.”
The original study, conducted in collaboration with the Partnership Overweight Netherlands (PON), analyzed healthcare costs and productivity losses associated with overweight and obesity. Researchers calculated that, on average, each person with overweight or obesity incurs nearly 11,500 euros per year in combined costs.
Questions have also been raised about undisclosed conflicts of interest. Three of the eight health economists involved in the study hold professional ties with Eli Lilly, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of weight-loss medication. Their affiliations were not disclosed in the research publication. The University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), where the three economists are employed, acknowledged this as a conflict of interest.
Experts say the researchers breached the scientific integrity code by failing to report their connections with Eli Lilly. The economists themselves admitted they should have declared these ties in the study’s manifest but argued that their work was not influenced by the pharmaceutical company.
The university expressed regret over the situation, emphasizing that the 79 billion euros figure was never part of the peer-reviewed article itself and should not have been communicated as such to the public.
