2025/07/11 by Jennifer L. Matjasko, Zhuo Chen, Geoffrey P. Whitfield +3 · 2 voices · 1 citation
Medicine · Social Sciences · #Physical Activity and Health #Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet #Urban Transport and Accessibility
paper · pdf · doi:10.1177/08901171251357128
Physical activity is a strong and modifiable protective factor for many adult health outcomes, including mental health and several chronic diseases. 1Physical activity guidelines recommend that adults participate in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity equivalent aerobic activity and at least two muscle-strengthening sessions per week. 1 In 2015, Carlson, et al., estimated that insufficient participation in leisure-time aerobic physical activity accounted for 117 billion in annual healthcare spending among US adults. 2 Since then, adult physical activity 3 and healthcare costs 4 have increased, necessitating an updated estimate.Our purpose was to provide updated estimates of healthcare expenditures associated with inadequate leisure-time aerobic physical activity in a nationally representative sample of noninstitutionalized U.S. adults. Methods DesignA cross-sectional econometric analysis of surveillance data. SampleData from the 2010-2018 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) were merged with the 2012-2019 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) at the individual level.NHIS is a multistage probability sample survey of U.S. households conducted annually.MEPS participants are drawn from the NHIS sample.We included adults aged 21 years or older with non-missing MEPS records (N = 82,939 respondents).Adults with missing data on physical activity and covariates were excluded (N = 3651), as were those who were pregnant during data collection (N = 2304) or who reported being unable to do physical activity (N = 968).The final sample included 76,016 participants.