Lack of exercise runs up $67.5 bn annual health tab: study

Health problems caused by a lack of daily physical exercise cost the world some $67.5 billion (61 billion euros) in 2013 -- more than many countries’ GDP, researchers said Thursday, reports AFP from Paris. The total was divided between $53.8 billion in healthcare spending and $13.7 billion in lost productivity, according to a study published in The Lancet medical journal. The research relied on economic and population data from 142 countries, representing 93 percent of the world’s population, its authors said. But the figure was likely an underestimate as the data covered only five diseases—coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer and colon cancer—at least the percentage attributable to physical inactivity.
The “cost calculations are based on conservative estimates, and the true cost may be even higher,” said a statement. The paper was the first to estimate the monetary cost of the global “pandemic” of inactivity, and was part of a special series timed for release ahead of the August 5 opening of the Rio Olympic Games. Living a sedentary lifestyle is associated with more than five million deaths in the world every year, the researchers said. Of the total estimated cost, $31.2 billion was tax revenue lost to public healthcare spending, $12.9 billion in spending by the private sector, including health insurance companies, and $9.7 billion in direct medical costs for households. The amounts were listed in “international dollars”—the equivalent of what an American dollar could buy in the United States in any given year. The burden for rich countries was proportionally higher in money terms, while for poor and middle-income countries the cost was mainly in disease and premature death, the study found. “Generally, poorer countries don’t have their health needs met due to less developed health and economic systems,” said Melody Ding from the University of Sydney, who led the research. As these countries develop economically, “so too will the consequent economic burden, if the pandemic of physical inactivity spreads as expected,” she said.

 

Lack of exercise runs up $67.5 bn annual health tab: study

Health problems caused by a lack of daily physical exercise cost the world some $67.5 billion (61 billion euros) in 2013 -- more than many countries GDP, researchers said Thursday, reports AFP from Paris. The total was divided between $53.8 billion in healthcare spending and $13.7 billion in lost productivity, according to a study published in The Lancet medical journal. The research relied on economic and population data from 142 countries, representing 93 percent of the worlds population, its authors said. But the figure was likely an underestimate as the data covered only five diseasescoronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer and colon cancerat least the percentage attributable to physical inactivity. The cost calculations are based on conservative estimates, and the true cost may be even higher, said a statement. The paper was the first to estimate the monetary cost of the global pandemic of inactivity, and was part of a special series timed for release ahead of the August 5 opening of the Rio Olympic Games. Living a sedentary lifestyle is associated with more than five million deaths in the world every year, the researchers said. Of the total estimated cost, $31.2 billion was tax revenue lost to public healthcare spending, $12.9 billion in spending by the private sector, including health insurance companies, and $9.7 billion in direct medical costs for households. The amounts were listed in international dollarsthe equivalent of what an American dollar could buy in the United States in any given year. The burden for rich countries was proportionally higher in money terms, while for poor and middle-income countries the cost was mainly in disease and premature death, the study found. Generally, poorer countries dont have their health needs met due to less developed health and economic systems, said Melody Ding from the University of Sydney, who led the research. As these countries develop economically, so too will the consequent economic burden, if the pandemic of physical inactivity spreads as expected, she said.