Daily Steps Are An Investment

A step a day keeps the doctor away

What if you knew that taking just one more step a day could reduce your healthcare costs? Would you try to take one more step towards health daily? Have you ever considered how much being inactive might cost you? One more step a day is 365 more steps a year. But could such a small effort make a difference in your health and expenses?

A recent study in Japan posed this very question. Using a wellness project implemented at a college, researchers measured how many steps a day participants took using a pedometer from 2009 to 2013. Then, investigators accessed participant healthcare data from April 2009 to March 2013. They looked at how much money each participant spent on inpatient and outpatient healthcare.

And what was the result? A one-step increase in a person’s average daily step reduced their outpatient healthcare costs.

Even more interesting is the impact this one step could have on a community. Previous research estimates an international cost of $53.8 billion (mostly paid by the public sector) to society annually.

How could inactivity cost so much? Consider how much direct healthcare costs are and then include disability-adjusted life-years for related diseases and productivity losses.

The financial burden of inactivity can add up quickly! And how is it paid for? Insurance premiums and taxes rise as the number of less active people rises. Even where you live and how healthy your community is can affect what you pay for insurance.