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Midlife fitness associated with lower future health care costs
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Higher cardiorespiratory fitness during middle age appears to lower total and CVD-related health care costs decades later, according to study findings published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Justin M. Bachmann, MD, MPH, from the division of cardiovascular medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and colleagues evaluated data collected from the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study and Medicare administrative claims data for 19,571 healthy participants (15,524 men and 4,047 women). All participants underwent cardiorespiratory fitness assessments at a mean age of 49 years, during which fitness was determined according to the maximal time and metabolic equivalents (MET) achieved on a treadmill test.
The primary outcome was mean annual care costs, with follow-up conducted from the initiation of Medicare coverage through death or December 31, 2009 (mean, 6.5 years of coverage; 126,388 person-years total). Coverage was initiated at a mean of 71 years.
Mean annual costs were lower among participants in the top two fitness quintiles compared with the lowest quintile among both men ($7,569 vs. $12,811) and women ($6,065 vs. $10,029) (P < .001 for both). Men and women with a high midlife fitness level also had significantly lower mean annual costs for CVD-specific health care ($1,458 vs. $3,333 for men; $804 vs. $1,633 for women; P < .001 for both). Similar associations were observed both among patients who died during the course of follow-up and those who survived.
Both men and women also exhibited lower mean annual costs per MET achieved during midlife fitness assessment, after adjustment for CV risk factors, with a 6.7% decrease per MET achieved observed among women and a 6.8% decrease among men (P < .001 for both).
“Our results suggest a potential financial benefit to participants and to health care systems that incorporate promotion of healthy lifestyles, including physical activity,” the researchers wrote. “Translating these results to health policy will require further understanding of the economic costs associated with incentivizing physical activity and the psychosocial dimensions of encouraging exercise, all of which represent inviting avenues for future study.” – by Trish Shea, MA
Disclosure: One researcher reports receiving financial support from the Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care endowment at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and AHA. Bachmann and the other researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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