What would happen if the existing disparities in physical activity levels between youth of lower and higher socioeconomic statuses were eliminated?
Mar 15 2024CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy Previous studies have shown that those between 6-17 years of age in lower socioeconomic groups get on average 10-15% less physical activity than those of higher socioeconomic groups. A new study published in the journal JAMA Health Forum on Mar. 15 shows that eliminating such disparities could end up saving society over $15 billion in direct medical costs and productivity losses.
Our work is one of the first studies to show the economic benefits of reducing socioeconomic disparities in physical activity levels among kids in the United States. It shows how investing in programs to get kids from all backgrounds more physically active can reduce costs related to obesity and other chronic diseases, like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Our work highlights that we can all benefit when we reduce health disparities and move towards greater health equity.
Substantial savings could result even if disparities were not fully eliminated but instead were reduced by smaller amounts. For example, reducing such disparities by 25% could still result in around 86,000 fewer cases of obesity/overweight and 26,000 fewer cases of weight-related diseases over the youths' lifetime. This could save over $4 billion in societal costs, including over $1 billion in direct medical costs and over $2 billion in productivity losses.