Henry Zheng, Yufang Zhu, Janaki Amin and Fred Ehrlic
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China
University of New South Wales, Australia
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Prim Health Care
Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) remains a leading cause of death in Australia, resulting in significant disease burden and productivity loss. It is well established that physical inactivity is a major contributing risk of CHD and increased physical activity is associated with deceased CHD risk. Although walking is reportedly the most prevalent and popular form of physical activity with high adherence rate and minimal injury risk, the economic impact of walking interventions on reducing the disease burden and associated productivity loss has remained unknown in Australia. This study aimed to assess reductions in the burden of CHD and CHD-related productivity loss resulting from walking interventions in Australia. The etiological fraction model, leisure and work models and consumer surplus model were applied for the economic evaluation. Sensitivity analysis was also performed to address potential uncertainty. The study suggested that 30 minutes of normal walking a day for 5-7 days a week by adult Australians reduced the disease burden by an estimated 25,065 DALYs and the productivity loss by $162.65 million annually under the leisure model. If the entire inactive population could engage in such walking, the total disease burden and productivity loss could be reduced by approximately one third. The economic benefits of walking intervention could amount to $8.54 billion based on the consumer surplus model. The shadow price assigned to walking time, however, was a key parameter in determining the outcome. Walking contributed to significant reductions in the burden of CHD and associated productivity loss.
Henry Zheng is currently the Director of the Economic Research Institute for Population Health and Ageing at the South China Business College of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. He has worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. His primary research interests include active, healthy ageing and health economics.
E-mail: zkx8866868@qq.com
