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research round-up

An Australian study has looked at the most effective ways of promoting exercise in adults, both in terms of health benefi ts and fi nancial cost

why Linda Cobiac and colleagues at the University of Queensland undertook a study to find out which of the country’s physical activity interventions were the most effective in terms of health benefits and financial cost. The researchers identifi ed six national



market value

D

espite being perceived as a sporting nation, Australia still has problems with physical inactivity. That’s

intervention programmes that promoted physical activity and public transport use in adults. These included: TravelSmart, a car-use reduction

initiative which gave households information on walking paths, bus timetables and incentives to use a car less GP prescription of physical activity GP referral to an exercise physiologist Internet advice on physical activity The promotion of pedometers in

• • • •



the community A mass-media campaign designed to

promote physical activity The health outcomes of each

intervention were calculated in disability /ability life years (DALYs) – the number of healthy years lost due to premature death or illness. These calculations were based on already published data of the effects of physical activity on diseases such as breast and colon cancer, heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes.

walk this way

C

obiac’s study isn’t the fi rst to identify the health benefi ts of using pedometers.

Back in 2007, researchers from

Stanford University found that overweight volunteers who were given pedometers increased their number of steps by more than 2,000 a day – the equivalent of an extra mile. Most

people also lost weight and found that their blood pressure dropped. Lead author Dena Bravata says:

“Just over 2,100 steps might not sound much, but it equated to a 27 per cent increase in physical activity, which is astounding.” The fi ndings were published in the Journal of the

American Medical Association.

Pedometers were found to be the most cost-effective intervention programme

The fi nancial cost was calculated by

offsetting the cost associated with the fi ve diseases listed above against the expense of running the interventions.

the results

The results, which were published in the journal PLoS Medicine, found that two interventions stood out as being the

most cost-effective: the pedometer programme – which ties in with previous studies we’ve seen (see information box, left) – and the mass-media marketing campaign. Referral to an exercise physiologist was the least cost-effective. The researchers stress, however, that

if the six interventions were combined, the effects would be much greater. While the overall delivery investment would come in at about AUS$940m, it would reduce the cost of treating diseases by AUS$1.4bn. Cobiac says: “It is likely that the package of interventions would not only be cost-effective but actually cost-saving to the health sector.” It’s suggested that a standardised

approach to assess cost-effectiveness of physical activity programmes could act as a model to guide policy-makers worldwide, identifying which approaches might be used to reduce the burden of diseases brought on by sedentary lifestyles.

Source: PLoS Medicine, 14 July 2009. The cost-effectiveness of interventions to promote physical activity: a modelling study. Cobiac et al

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