ArticleBMC public health2023
The role of physical activity on healthcare utilization in China.
Article in BMC public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Obesity, Physical Activity and Occurrence of High Medical Expenditures at One-Year Follow-Up Among Japanese Beneficiaries of Employment-Based Health Insurances: An Analysis Based on a Nationwide Health Checkup Questionnaire.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Differential impacts of job-relatedWorld journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- The impact of physical exercise on medical expenditure among middle-aged and older adults: digital literacy as a moderating variable.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Article
- The association between dual sensory impairment and social participation among older adults in China: a moderated mediation model of activities of daily living and depressive symptoms.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Effects of activities participation on frailty of older adults in China.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundEvidence on the role of physical activity (PA) on healthcare utilization and expenditure is limited in China. We aimed to examine the association between the total physical activity (TPA) per week, healthcare service use and expenditure.
methodsWe extracted the data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2011, 2013, and 2015. Participants more than 50 years old who completed the follow-up for the three waves were enrolled. We converted the volume of vigorous physical activity (VPA) into an equivalent volume of moderate physical activity (MPA) and calculated the TPA per week for each participant. 12,927 of the 17,708 participants in CHARLS were included in our analysis. More than one-third of participants over 50 years old never participate in any moderate or intensity activity, and the median of self-reported moderate or intensity PA was about 525 (IQR 0-1680) MET-minutes per week in 2015.
resultsCompared to inactive subjects, the highest level of TPA was significantly related to the decreased risk number of inpatient visits (IRR: 0.58; 95% CI:0.50-0.67, p < 0.001), inpatient hospital days (IRR: 0.60; 95% CI: 0.42-0.84, p < 0.01), healthcare expenditure (IRR: 0.71; 95% CI: 0.65-0.79, p < 0.001) and catastrophic health expenditures (OR: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.45-0.72, p < 0.001) after adjusting for covariates.
conclusionsEngaging in moderate-to-vigorous PA may drive a potential decrease in healthcare utilization, healthcare expenditure and household financial risk with a dose-response relationship in China, and some possible policy implications in public health may be considered to promote exercise in the middle-aged and elderly to reduce the medical burden on individuals and healthcare systems.
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