PRESS RELEASE

New study shows inactivity costs Nova Scotia $354 million a year

From: Sport Nova Scotia and Recreation Nova Scotia

June 12, 2002

HALIFAX - A 2002 GPI Atlantic study, funded by Sport Nova Scotia and Recreation Nova Scotia, and prepared by Ronald Colman, Ph.D, shows that inactivity has become a severe drain on the province's finances, costing Nova Scotians $354 million annually in health care costs and productivity losses.

Sport Nova Scotia and Recreation Nova Scotia have teamed up with Ronald Colman and GPI Atlantic to drive home the need for preventative measures, rather than reactive care. "It is astounding when you consider how much of the province's resources are currently spent caring for preventable disease," says Scott Logan, CEO of Sport Nova Scotia. "So many of the diseases that result from inactivity, such as type II diabetes, heart disease, etc. could have been avoided by a quality sport or recreation program."

Epidemiological studies estimate that 36% of heart disease, 27% of osteoporosis, 20% of stroke, hypertension, diabetes 2, and colon cancer, and 11% of breast cancer are attributable to physical inactivity. Physical activity has also been shown to protect against depression, anxiety, stress, and obesity; to develop healthy muscles, bones, and joints; to improve behavioral development in children and adolescents; and to help maintain function and independence in older adults.

According to the Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institiute, 62% of Nova Scotians are currently too inactive to reap the health benefits of regular physical activity. The $354 million cost of physical inactivity includes $66.5 million a year in hospital, physician and drug costs alone. When all direct health care costs are added, including private expenditures, the total is $107 million a year in direct medical care expenditures. The additional $247 million each year comes from indirect productivity losses due to premature death and disability.

The 2002 study also shows that if just 10% fewer Nova Scotians were physically inactive, the province could save an estimated $4.6 million every year in avoided hospital, drug, and physician costs, and $7.5 million in total health care spending. Added to an estimated $17 million in productivity gains, total economic savings to Nova Scotia from a 10% reduction in physical inactivity amount to $24.7 million.

"Sport and recreation yield a high return on investment," says Dawn Stegen, Executive Director of Recreation Nova Scotia. "For a fraction of the cost used to treat people with inactivity-related illness, programs to get people active can yield substantial savings."

To change Nova Scotia's bleak health care statistics, Recreation Nova Scotia and Sport Nova Scotia make a number of recommendations.

Nova Scotians should advocate for strategic investment by the government. Money spent on sport and recreation as a preventative health measure is more effective than that spent on treating inactivity-related disease.

Strategic investments would ensure adequate funding and facilities for sport and recreation programs and quality programs with trained leaders. Funding for programs such as Sport Nova Scotia's Sport Futures Leadership Program and Recreation Nova Scotia's HIGH FIVE Program would help improve the quality of sport and recreation programs, maximizing their effectiveness as preventative health care measures.

All Nova Scotians should have access to sport and recreation opportunities, regardless of their gender, race, socio-economic status, disability, etc.

No community sport or recreation facilities should sit idle during the day. A reduction in physical education has caused a greater strain on community-based sport and recreation but without proper funding and facilities, these community programs cannot exist;

Physical education programs remain a critical component of a child's healthy development, yet they are being cut. Physical education programs need to be revived with proper funding and well-trained leaders. With a specialized physical education teacher, and a principal's commitment to intra-mural and inter-school sport, each child should meet the recommended 150 minutes of activity time per week throughout grades primary to 12.

Once sport and recreation opportunities are fully accessible to Nova Scotians, a province-wide awareness campaign is necessary to raise awareness of the benefits of reducing inactivity, the commitment required to achieve the benefits, and the options that are available to Nova Scotians.