Regular exercise tied to lower health costs

Need another reason to exercise? A new study suggests that routine workouts are associated with significantly lower health costs for heart disease patients.

Patients with heart disease who did moderate to vigorous physical activity for 30 minutes at least five times a week saved an average of more than $2,500 (about 2222 euros) in annual healthcare costs, the study found.

And even gym rats without heart disease may experience lower costs, according to the study in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

“The financial benefits with regular exercise were notable across the entire spectrum of risk including those with and without known cardiovascular disease,” study author Dr. Khurram Nasir, director of the Center for Healthcare Advancement and Outcomes at Baptist Health South Florida, said by email.

For cardiovascular health, the American Heart Association recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity five days a week, or at least 25 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity three days a week, or a combination of the two.

Moderate activity — which causes a light sweat, or only modest increases in breathing or heart rate — includes fast walking, lawn mowing or heavy cleaning. Vigorous activity includes running or race walking, lap swimming or aerobics.

Even though getting 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise each week is associated with fewer complications and deaths from heart disease, roughly two-thirds of heart disease patients still fail to get this much physical activity, Nasir and colleagues note.

To assess the financial impact of exercise on these patients, researchers examined data from a 2012 nationwide survey of more than 26,000 US adults, excluding people who were underweight, pregnant or unable to walk up to 10 steps.

Overall, 1,896 of the participants, or nine percent, had a cardiovascular disease diagnosis, representing 19.4 million adults nationwide.

Among the people without heart disease, 49 percent reported getting at least the minimum recommended amount of exercise each week, compared with just 32 percent of those with cardiovascular disease. —