Growth in diagnostics depends on shifting dieters' focus to body fat

Drug Store News,  Oct 10, 2005  by Michael Johnsen

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The burgeoning need for Americans to trim their collective waistlines will drive growth in most products currently being sold in the diagnostics area--including blood glucose meters, AIC testers, pedometers, blood pressure monitors and cholesterol test kits, as well as body fat analyzers and weight scales. Also tipping the scale toward a beefed up diagnostics business is the aging baby boomer--the first baby boomers began celebrating their 60th birthdays this fall, and they can expect to live another 20 years (23 years for women) if they keep an active eye on their health.

Yet even with the 127 million Americans considered overweight--those with a body mass index greater than 25--consumers interested in losing that weight are still looking more for diet-in-a-bottle solutions and meal replacements than for weight management diagnostics. Relatively speaking, they re not buying those body fat analyzers to help them manage their weight.

But that s changing, suggested David Fahrner, Omron's general manager of marketing. "We have more physicians recommending [body fat analyzers]," he said, but dieters are more concerned with losing pounds than body fat. The difference is in the approach-weight loss can be achieved in the short term through fad diets that restrict caloric intake. Managing body fat demands more of a lifestyle change-increased exercise and better nutrition--because weight loss is not necessarily the ultimate goal. Indeed, a person s weight may stay the same or even become greater as fat tissue is replaced with the weightier lean muscle tissue. And, as such, today's prevalent litmus test for obesity--BMI, which is calculated by dividing a person's body weight in kilograms by their height in meters squared--can be a little misleading, Fahrner suggested.

"Until weight-loss companies [like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig] start talking about body at, Fahrner said, managing BMI will not be in vogue. "But you do have more physicians and more diabetes-educators talking about the importance, of monitoring body fat. It s going to be a slow build.

While there is a direct correlation between the sale of body fat analyzers and weight scales as fatty Americans are implored to lose the excess pounds, not so distinct is the correlation between obesity and several comorbidities like high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease and diabetes. With the rapid increase of obesity, so, too, will rise the ranks of people who either will be diagnosed with diabetes or will be told by their doctors to buy a blood pressure monitor or to monitor their cholesterol.

The obesity trend not only will drive more customers to the diagnostics area in chain drug, but that customer will be increasingly younger. "The medical community ... is beginning to see hypertension and diabetes [diagnosesl at a younger age," noted John Wilson, vice president, of marketing for Mark of Fitness. "It used to be you'd have to be 45 or older before you even started to think about these things."

Mark of Fitness has entered a licensing agreement with Prevention magazine for a line of diagnostics products. A blood pressure monitor will begin shipping this month, while a pedometer, body fat analyzer and a weight scale/analyzer combination product will begin shipping in January.

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