The Government hopes to place physical activity at the heart of every community so that individuals are healthier and businesses more productive. To this end a new physical activity plan has been launched called “Be Active, Be healthy” which seeks to achieve this goal. This plan describes how 9% of deaths could be avoided if people who are currently sedentary did at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise, five days per week. This includes over one third of all deaths due to coronary heart disease. The cost of physical inactivity to the NHS is estimated to be 1.8 billion and to the wider economy 8.3 billion.

The benefits of exercise in peripheral vascular disease, stroke, COPD, coronary heart disease, hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, diabetes, osteoporosis, breast cancer, colon cancer, dementia, mild depression and obesity have been established in many studies. Public health recommendations advise adults to undertake at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity activity most days of the week. For the elderly in particular the effects of physical exercise can be profound promoting greater levels of physical independence and increasing the chances of dying free from disability. Hip fracture is currently estimated to cost the NHS and social services 1.8 billion pounds per year. Strength training programs for the elderly have been proven to reduce falls and so fracture rates. If the hip fracture rate was reduced by 1% this would equate to 200 million pound saving.

Further more work undertaken by the federation of Disability Sports Organisations in Yorkshire and the Humber included a survey across nine established groups who provided services for physically, sensory and learning impaired people. Findings included :

1. A large proportion of participants stated that health problems prevented them from being physically active.

2. Half had not been physically active for 12 months with only a small percentage stating that they did not like sport or recreation.

3. About one half stated that a lack of choice and opportunity prevented them from being physically active.

Significant inequalities exist within our ethnic minorities with only 11% of Bangladeshi and 14% of Pakistani women reported to have done recommended levels of physical activity compared to 25% of the general population. The active people survey has shown that black and ethnic minority groups (17.6%) were less likely to participate in regular sport on at least three days per week for 30 minutes moderate intensity as compared to the white population (21.73%).

This article aims to outline the huge national financial burden resulting from our largely sedentary lifestyles and poor diets with the cost set to spiral in many disease areas such as obesity and diabetes.