Objectives: To estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for effective treatment in a sample of obese individuals and to examine whether WTP is associated with factors reflecting the severity of obesity as well as a number of other variables such as age, sex, education, and income.

Methods: WTP and data on the severity of obesity were collected from the study, Swedish Obese Subjects. Associations between WTP, income, and obesity-related factors were analyzed by linear regression.

Results: The mean age was 47 years (range, 37 through 59 years) and the mean body mass index (BMI) was 39.6 kg/m2 (n = 3,549). Average personal monthly income was SEK 13,000 (≈ US $1,585), average WTP was SEK 26,900 (≈ US $3,280) and the median value was SEK 10,900 (≈ US $1,330). A high WTP was associated with high personal and household income, high weight, high education, female sex, poor perceived health, low current age, and low age at onset of obesity. Over 50% of the patients deemed it necessary to borrow money to cover their WTP. When adding a loan to the regression analysis, the associations between WTP and perceived health, age, and gender disappeared.

Conclusion: Obese patients are willing to pay approximately twice their monthly salary for effective treatment and a higher WTP is associated with higher weight and poorer perceived health.