Meeting Government exercise targets could save UK up to half a billion pounds

Deloitte and TARP launch Health of the Nation report

Published: 30/03/2006

Less than half of the UK population (48.4%) exercise enough to meet the Government’s recommended 150 minutes per week* according to Health of the Nation, a report launched today by business advisory firm Deloitte and research consultancy TARP. The report calculates that by increasing the number of people who exercise for at least 150 minutes per week to the Government’s target of 70% of the population, sick leave could be cut by 2,783 808 days a year, boosting the economy by £487m.

According to the report, which includes a survey of over 10,000 people in the UK on their health and fitness habits, a measurable improvement in the frequency and length of exercise taken by people would ease the burden on the NHS and improve companies’ productivity and profitability.

Survey figures show those who exercised less than the recommended 150 minutes per week took an average 3.5 sick days, compared to those who exercised more than the recommended amount who took 3 sick days per year. People who exercised more than 150 minutes also visited the doctor and hospital less with an average of 1.9 visits compared with 2.6 visits by those who exercised less.

Adrian Balcombe, Deloitte partner specialising in the fitness industry, says: “The benefits of a fitter population would be felt throughout the economy. There would be a reduced burden on the NHS and insurers would face fewer health-related claims. A population more motivated to exercise could boost revenues for health club and leisure centre operators, employers would see increased productivity through reduced absenteeism and people would enjoy a healthier lifestyle with reduced risk of illness.”

For almost half the people surveyed walking is their main form of exercise (48.1%), followed by jogging/running (6.2%) and swimming (6%). When walking is excluded, health clubs are the most popular places to exercise, but only 17% of those surveyed are members of a club. In contrast, 26% of those surveyed were lapsed members of health clubs.

Balcombe comments: “Health clubs and leisure centres need to work harder to improve usage by their members and users which will in turn improve retention. The survey showed that 84% of members and users were satisfied enough to recommend their facility to others, but their biggest gripes were around the maintenance and cleanliness of the facilities, having to wait to use equipment and the lack of flexibility in pricing for that usage.

“Two thirds of lapsed members said they would consider rejoining if they were offered cheaper or subsidised membership. Another 42% cited more flexible membership options such as pay as you go or off-peak membership.”

The survey found people are motivated to exercise by the desire to improve their personal health, control their weight and to get outdoors. However, people exercise most regularly when their motivation is not just about health and fitness, but some other incentive is involved such as socialising or contributing to a worthy cause. For example, people whose primary motivation for exercise is training for a charity event exercise 5 times a week on average and people whose primary motivation for exercise was spending time with family exercise on average 4.9 times a week, compared with 4.6 times for those who exercise mainly for health and fitness reasons.

According to the report 64% of people felt there were already enough facilities in their area and 62% said the general quality of exercise facilities was good or very good. Only 6.6% said that more facilities were needed. However the keenest exercisers, rather than those in need of encouragement, were the people demanding more conveniently located facilities.

Balcombe comments: "UK expenditure on exercise is just £7.46 per person per month. It's therefore no surprise that the most common forms of exercise are walking and jogging, as both are free and require no equipment.

"The challenge for Government, health clubs and leisure centres is to find new ways to motivate people to exercise regularly by making physical activity more fun and social. Employers need to incorporate exercise perks into their benefits package to make up for the amount the average person is prepared to spend on exercise per month. The reduced absence rates and improved health of the workforce is likely to fund this.

"Our results show building more facilities is not the whole solution to increasing the amount people exercise in the UK. Rather, the Government, health clubs and leisure centres need to raise awareness of the benefits exercising offers, recognising what motivates people to exercise and encouraging people to use the already available facilities," adds Balcombe.

Ends

Notes to editor

Read our executive summary and purchase a copy of the report: Health of the Nation

*excluding walking as the main form of exercise

The on-line questionnaire was e-mailed to a nationally representative sample of adults over 18 years of age in the UK between 19th January and 13th February 2006. The random sample was drawn from a nationally representative database and the results have been weighted by age and sex according to the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) at the time of publication.

The Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, says that adults should exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, five days a week. To achieve this objective, the government has set a target of building enough new facilities to ensure that by 2020 no one will be more than a 20 minute journey away by foot, bike, car or public transport, from at least one leisure centre, swimming pool or other exercise facility.The Government has also set a target that by 2020 70% of the UK population will be doing 30 minutes of exercise a day, five days a week (150 minutes per week).

Based on the survey findings, people that meet the Government guidelines of 150 minutes of exercise per week take fewer sick days than those that don't. If the Government reached its target of 70% of the population exercising for 150 minutes or more per week, our model calculated a saving of 2.78m sick days which saves the economy £487m per annum. This figure is based on the assumption that the average daily output of a UK worker is £175 calculated by dividing UK GDP of £1267bn (expected for 2006 according to 2005 Pre-Budget Report) by 29m workers (ONS employment figure) divided by 250 typical working days per annum.