Meeting federal youth sports participation goals could save billions of dollars

A first-of-its-kind study finds that increasing the percentage of U.S. youth who participate in sports to meet Healthy People 2030 goals will improve the physical and mental health of children and save 80 billion It has been suggested that dollars could be saved.

Achieving the Healthy People 2030 youth sports participation goals could save the United States $80 billion in direct health costs and lost productivity, and provide more than 1.8 million years of quality life for Americans. The research results were published in a journal. American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Every 10 years since 1980, Healthy People has provided 10-year, science-based national goals and objectives aimed at improving the health and well-being of the population. The results of this study are based on a computer simulation model for all U.S. adolescents (ages 6 to 17) developed by the PHICOR team at the State University of New York School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) to show that Based on the results of What would happen if Japan's youth sports participation rate rose from its current level of 50.7% to 63.3%, the goal of Healthy People 2030?

“Our research shows that achieving this key public health goal outlined in Healthy People 2030 will not only prevent disease and save lives, but also save the economy billions of dollars. ” said Executive Director Bruce Y. Lee, MD, MBA. Professor at PHICOR, Professor at SPH, State University of New York, and senior author of this study. “And if the United States can maintain that level of youth sports participation, those savings will be repeated again.”

For this study, the PHICOR team collaborated with the Aspen Institute's Project Play Initiative and collaborators from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Adelphi University, Stellenbosch University, the University of Texas at Austin, Utah State University, and Michigan State University. We cooperated with .

The research team developed a computational model to describe sports participation among U.S. youth and tracked their weight changes and mental health outcomes (such as anxiety and depression) until they turned 18 years old. The model also simulated and tracked the weight-related health effects they might experience over their lifetime, such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and cancer.

As a result, achieving the Healthy People 2030 youth sports participation target would reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity by 3.37% in absolute terms, resulting in 1.71 million overweight/obesity cases in the youth cohort. It was shown that there is a possibility of decreasing the number of cases. The results showed that achieving the goal of Healthy People 2030 would lead to more than 1.8 million years of high-quality life expectancy.

“While people generally agree that there are many benefits to playing sports and being active, our research shows that participation in sports can improve the physical and mental well-being of children as they grow. “This is the first study to quantify the health effects,” said Marie Martinez. MPH is the project director of PHICOR and the lead author of this study.

“This will not only help demonstrate the current and future impact of increased sports participation, but also help decision makers decide how to invest and allocate resources to increase participation. Masu.”

A major contributor to billions of dollars in cost savings was the extent to which increased physical activity through participation in sports helped prevent weight-related health problems. Improved physical health due to increased sports participation among young people has led to 352,000 deaths from weight-related diseases such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and cancer over the lifetime of the 6- to 17-year-old cohort. There is a possibility that the problem can be avoided. This would save more than $22 billion in direct medical costs and more than $25 billion in lost productivity due to improved physical health.

The associated cost reductions from increased physical activity were due to mental health benefits as well as physical health. Previous research has shown that playing sports reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression, especially in adolescents.

The study results show that achieving the Healthy People 2030 sports participation goals would lead to an overall reduction in depression and anxiety symptoms, which would result in direct medical costs of $3.61 billion and increased productivity across the youth population. It was shown that losses would be reduced by $28.38 billion.

The cost savings will far outweigh current investments in increasing youth sports participation. For context, pre-pandemic, the Aspen Institute estimated that families spent $30 billion to $40 billion on youth sports, based on surveys and national sports participation data. This means that investments in youth sports could double her and still result in a net cost reduction over the youth cohort's lifetime.

Furthermore, this model does not take into account non-weight related chronic health conditions (e.g. osteoporosis), potential indirect effects of sports participation (e.g. improved diet/nutrition, reduced drug use, etc.) Therefore, the overall results may be on the conservative side. ), there is also no effect of sports participation on academic performance, social skills, emotional regulation, or mood.

Relatively small changes in participation could potentially save billions of dollars. For example, simply returning youth sports participation to pre-pandemic levels (58.4%) could save a total of $29.17 billion. In 2020-2021, youth sports participation levels will be affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated social distancing on children's ability to play sports regularly. This was partly due to the impact of the pandemic.

Tom Farley, executive director of the Aspen Institute's Sports & Society Program, founder of Project Play, and co-author of the study, said, “Most kids will no longer play organized sports. The country is moving dangerously close.”

“We bring together the Project Play network of leaders to increase participation rates, but sports organizations can’t do this alone. Public health, education, government, philanthropy and others impacting children’s lives can’t do this alone. We need the support of the sectors involved. There are many benefits and cost savings to be gained by getting and retaining more children in the game.”

Several organizations have identified opportunities to increase participation that could guide these investments. For example, the Aspen Institute's Project Play Initiative has developed eight common strategies to increase participation in sports. This includes revitalizing city leagues, promoting sports sampling, and designing sports programs based on developmentally appropriate play principles for youth.

Additionally, the National Youth Sport Strategy provided approaches such as the development of shared use agreements to facilitate access to public or private playgrounds outside of normal hours. Additionally, the results of this study can set the stage for identifying interventions and policies designed to meet youth sport participation goals and beyond in healthy populations.