Mean direct and indirect costs associated with low physical activity (of 77% of adults) and high sedentary behaviour (83%), in millions of euros, except unemployment benefits and income tax or earnings-tax contributions (cited as per-individual costs in euros and were converted to values in 2017)
| Cost (in millions of euros) of low physical activity (95% CI)* | Cost (in millions of euros) of ≥8 hours of sedentary behaviour per 16 waking hours (95% CI) | |
| Direct costs† | ||
| Use of healthcare services | 214.1 (137.4 to 292.9) | 346.3 (253.3 to 421.8) |
| Medications | 49.1 (28.2 to 71.5) | 122.9 (97.9 to 143.7) |
| Institutional eldercare | 419.4 (306.2 to 504.3) | – |
| Total direct costs‡ | 682.6 (471.8 to 868.7) | 469.2 (351.2 to 565.4) |
| Indirect costs | ||
| Short sickness-related absence (≤10 days)† | 11.3 (6.5 to 15.8) | 2.3 (0.5 to 3.8) |
| Long sickness-related absence (>10 days)† | 44.4 (29.3 to 59.3) | 42.6 (27.4 to 54.9) |
| Disability pension† | 324.9 (187.5 to 469.9) | 691.3 (542.2 to 813.0) |
| All-cause mortality† | 300.1 (238.1 to 363.1) | 298.1 (205.6 to 378.1) |
| Income taxes§ | 1843.7 (639.0 to 3005.8) | – |
| Unemployment benefits § | 21.2 (4.3 to 38.1) | – |
| Total indirect costs‡ | 2545.5 (1104.7 to 3952.0) | 1034.3 (775.7 to 1249.8) |
| Total costs | 3228.1 (1576.5 to 4820.7) | 1503.5 (1126.9 to 1815.2) |
*CIs are based on the lower and upper relative risk level, excluding unemployment benefits and income tax.
†Costs related to non-communicable diseases.
‡Total costs (excluding income taxes and unemployment benefits)=
, that is, total annual costs were obtained by multiplying the population attributable fraction by the total costs of the relevant disease.§The results are based on ordinary least squares regression (see online supplemental material 1) in which the reference category is being physically active. Models include controls for gender, birth cohort, birth month, an individual’s chronic diseases, body fat, education level, employment status, parents’ education, parents’ physical activity, family income and family size.
