Getting more children involved in sports by 2030 could save the US $80 billion a year in direct medical costs, report says

Increasing the number of children participating in sports by just 25 percent by 2030 would save the country tens of billions of dollars in medical costs, a report claims.

Less than a quarter of American children aged six to 17 get the recommended hour of physical activity each day, a figure that has been on a downward trend for decades, while youth obesity has soared and now affects one in five children hits.

A study led by researchers at the City University of New York (CUNY) shows that increasing the number of children involved in sports by 25 percent over the next five and a half years would save $80 billion, 1 .71 million fewer cases of overweight/obesity and 352,000 fewer cases of overweight/obesity. cases of weight-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

In March 2020, it took just days for schools and after-school sports programs to cancel athletic events out of concern for student health. But four years later, the number of children rejoining their team is lower than researchers and doctors had hoped.

Increasing youth participation in sports from the current 50.7 percent to 63.3 percent could reduce the overweight and obesity rate by 3.37 percent, translating into approximately 1.71 million fewer cases

In fact, researchers predict that just increasing participation from current levels to pre-Covid levels – 58.4 percent – ​​could save as much as $29.17 billion.

The 2030 goal is part of the administration’s Healthy People Initiative, launched in 1979, which sets national 10-year goals and targets aimed at improving the health and well-being of Americans.

The latest study was led by researchers at the City University of New York (CUNY) who used a computer simulation of American children aged six to seventeen to demonstrate the long-term benefits of achieving the goal of improving current levels of youth participation in sports enlarge. .

Marie Martinez, an expert at CUNY and author of the study They said this is the first study to quantify the impact of sports participation on children’s physical and mental health as they grow.

She said: ‘This is not only useful in showing the current and future impact of increasing sports participation, but can also help policymakers determine how to invest and allocate resources to increase participation.’

In addition to representing young people’s participation in sports, the computer model they used simulated and tracked weight-related health problems, including diabetes, stroke, heart disease and some cancers that they are likely to experience during their lifetime.

Increasing youth participation in sports from the current 50.7 percent to 63.3 percent could reduce the overweight and obesity rate by 3.37 percent, translating into approximately 1.71 million fewer cases.

Furthermore, achieving this goal could also add more than 1.8 million years of healthier life for individuals.

And the improved physical health resulting from increased participation in youth sports could prevent approximately 352,000 cases of weight-related diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and several forms of cancer over the lifetimes of children ages 6 to 12 . 17.

The downstream effects include massive health care savings worth $22 billion in direct medical costs and more than $25 billion in productivity losses due to improvements in physical health.

Researchers also said that physical well-being is not the only facet that would improve if more children were physically active and participated in sports.

They reported that the overall reduction in depression and anxiety symptoms resulting from achieving the Healthy People 2030 goal could save $3.61 billion in direct medical costs and limit productivity losses among the youth population to $28.38 billion .

Childhood obesity rates in the US increased by 17% between 2011 and 2020, with those between the ages of 12 and 19 most at risk

Achieving the Healthy People 2030 goal is expected to add more than 1.8 million years of healthier lives for young people

Tom Farrey, executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program, founder of Project Play and co-author of the study, said, “We are dangerously close to a country in which most children no longer play organized sports.

“We need help from public health, education, government, philanthropy and other sectors that impact the lives of children – sectors that will reap many of the benefits and cost savings of getting and keeping more children in the game.’

Their report was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The researchers’ sense of urgency to boost youth sports participation comes in the wake of skyrocketing youth obesity rates in the US, which show no signs of stopping.

According to a report published in JAMA Pediatrics. That represents a jump of 17 percent from previous data collected in 2016.

The Covid pandemic, which saw millions of children abruptly switched to remote learning and forced to forego extracurricular activities and time with friends, has had a lasting impact on young people’s sports participation, but there are signs that a return to normal is on the way, albeit slowly. .

Project Play Report 2022 shows that the number of hours children play has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Children aged 5 to 18 spent an average of 16.6 hours per week on sports activities in September 2022, compared to 13.6 percent pre-pandemic and 7.2 percent in June 2020.

Yet a growing number of children have no interest in sports at all.

In May and June 2020, about 19 percent of parents said that loss of interest in playing would likely deter their child from participating in sports if the pandemic were brought under control.

That figure increased to 28 percent in the fall of 2021 and remained stable at 27 percent in the fall of 2022.