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Obesity And Healthcare Cost

Introduction
The intent of this paper is to explore the correlation between obesity and increased cost to companies for their healthcare coverage of all employees. Our hypothesis is that obesity is increasing the cost of healthcare company wide due to obesity and the diseased associated with this epidemic. Our null hypothesis is that the effects and treatment of obesity is not having a direct impact on the total healthcare cost of organizations.
Obesity has both direct and indirect effects. Direct effects we will explore are lost time due to increased use of sick days and restrictive work duties. A few of the indirect costs are the cost of medication for diseases directly related to obesity, such as but not limited to, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol, heart related issues and cost of medication to treat and control these diseases.
In an effort to accomplish this task we will review recent studies conducted on this subject by nationally accredited institutions such as the Center for Disease Control (CDC), American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association along with other government and public agencies. We have included the results of one of the most in-depth recent studies completer by the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and published in the International Journal of Obesity in January 2005. We will also reference other data from other sources as well in an effort to prove the hypothesis.

Sample Size
Selecting a sample size is necessary when testing theories because there would never be enough time to test an entire population and it might be very costly.   The sample size should be a fair and unbiased representation of the population.   In order for the sample to be unbiased it should be selected randomly.   Random selection ensures that everyone has the same amount of information and opportunity.  
When researching a population the sample size depends on three factors, "the level of confidence desired, the margin of error...