ECONOMIC COSTS OF PHYSICAL INACTIVITY

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ECONOMIC COSTS OF PHYSICAL INACTIVITY
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Health Risks of Physical Inactivity 2,3

• Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for
  CHD 2
• Individuals who are inactive are 1.9 times more
  likely to have a heart attack 2
• 37 of CHD deaths can be attributed to physical
  inactivity 3
• 19 are attributed to smoking 3
• 13 are attributed to high blood
• pressure3

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Healthcare Costs of Diseases Associated with
Physical Inactivity 4-7

• CHD costs the UK health care system 1.73
  billion4
• Stroke accounted for 1.8 billion of NHS
  expenditure5
• Direct costs of obesity are at least 500 million
  per year6
• Diabetes treatment accounts for approximately
  5.2 billion7

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Healthcare Costs of Diseases Associated with
Physical Inactivity8,9

• Osteoporosis results in over 200 000 fractures
  each year, costing the NHS over 940 million8
• Approximately 1,632 million was spent on back
  pain in the UK9
• 6.5 billion was spent on mental health services
  in the NHS last year in England alone

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Economic Costs of Diseases Associated with
Physical Inactivity 4-6

• CHD cost the UK economy 5.33 billion through
  informal care and lost productivity4
• Stroke resulted in 7.7 million lost working days
  about 459 million in lost production5
• Obesity costs to the individual and industry are
  approximately 2 billion per year6

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Economic Costs of Diseases Associated with
Physical Inactivity 9,10

• Type II diabetes costs industry around 564
  million per year10
• Insulin dependent diabetes costs a further 231
  million10
• Back pain cost the economy 10,700 million from
  lost production and informal care9

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Potential Savings

• Northern Ireland Physical Activity Strategy aims
  to
• Reduce sedentary population from 20 to 15
• This will result in
• At least 121 saved lives per year among under 75
  years
• An associated economic benefit of 131 million

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Potential Savings

• Physical Activity Strategy for Scotland
• Estimated that 85.2 million could be saved if
  levels of inactivity were reduced by 1 each year
  for the next 5 years
• These economic benefits are associated with the
  number of life years saved through preventing
  premature death from CHD, strokes and colon cancer

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Potential Savings

• 9 of CHD could be avoided if sedentary and
  lightly active became more moderately active3
• Regular moderate physical activity has the
  potential to reduce half the incidence of hip
  fractures in over 45 year olds11
• Risk of death in men who walk more than 1 mile a
  day is 1.8 times that of men who walk less than 1
  mile a day15

10
Potential SavingsDiabetes 12

• A landmark clinical trial (RCT) found that diet
  exercise were significantly more effective than
  metformin in the prevention of diabetes in
  glucose intolerant patients
• Lifestyle intervention group reduced incidence of
  diabetes by 58 compared with the placebo,
  metformin reduced incidence by 31
• To prevent 1 new case of diabetes need to treat
• 6.9 persons for 3 years with lifestyle
  intervention
• 13.9 persons for 3 years with metformin

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Potential SavingsFunctional Decline

• 50 of all fallers who fracture their hips are
  never functional walkers again
• 1 in 5 will die within 6 months
• It is possible to reverse age- and
  activity-related decline relatively quickly with
  physical activity

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Summary

• The total cost of all CHD related burdens was
  7.06 billion in 1999
• If the current obesity trends are not reversed
  then diabetes healthcare costs will increase by
  15 over the next 20 years
• Developing public policy to create a supportive
  environment for physical activity has the
  potential to save lives, healthcare resources and
  industry lost production costs.

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References

• World Health Organisation (2002). Report on the
  global burden of disease from 22 health risk
  factors. Geneva WHO
• Blair, S.N. et al., (1992). How much physical
  activity is good for health? Annual Review of
  Public Health. 13 99-126
• Britton, A. McPherson, K. (2002). Monitoring
  the progress of the 2010 target for CHD
  mortality Estimated consequences on CHD
  incidence and mortality from changing prevalence
  of risk factors. London National Heart Forum.

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References

• Liu, J.L.Y., Maniadakis, N., Gray, A. Rayner,
  M. (2002). The economic burden of Coronary Heart
  Disease in the UK. Heart. 88 597-603.
• Bosanquet, N. Franks, P. (1998). Stroke care
  reducing the burden of disease. London Stroke
  Association.
• National Audit Office (2001). Tackling Obesity.
  London NAO.
• Diabetes UK (2003). London Diabetes and Lip
  Centre.
• Dolan, P Togerson, D.J. (1998). The cost of
  treating osteoporotic fractures in the UK female
  population. Osteoporosis International. 8
  611-617

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References

• Manaiadikis, N. Gray, A. (2000). The economic
  burden of back pain in the UK.
• Gray, A., Fenn, P., et al. (1996). Economic
  analysis of diabetes. Journal of Diabetes and Its
  Complications. 10 149-150.
• Nicholl, J.P., Coleman, P. and Brazier, J.E.
  (1994). Health and health care costs and benefits
  of exercise. Pharmoeconomics. 5 (2) 109-122.
• Knowler, W.C., Barrett-Connor, E., Fowler, S.E.
  et al., (2002). Reduction in the incidence of
  type 2 diabetes with lifestyle intervention or
  metformin. New England Journal of Medicine. 346
  (6) 393-403.

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Images

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• Microsoft Office Online (2003)