Reducing physical activity disparities between genders could save billions

Eliminating current physical activity disparities between male and female youth in the United States could save around $780 million for each new cohort of six-to-17-year-olds, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open. In fact, bringing more equity to sports participation could save even more: $1.55 billion.

This study, led by researchers from the Center for Advanced Technology and Communication in Health (CATCH) at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), contributes to the growing body of evidence suggesting that targeted interventions can have a profound impact on the health of future generations while also alleviating financial burdens on healthcare systems.

Unfortunately, studies also show significant disparities between the physical activity levels of male and female youth. For example, only 15% of female participants in grades nine to 11 as compared to 31% of their male counterparts met aerobic guidelines, as shown by the 2011-2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. There are even greater disparities in sports participation. A 2019 study found that 54.1% of female participants as compared to 60.4% of male participants participate in sports.

To simulate what would happen if these disparities were reduced to different degrees, CATCH and NIMHD researchers decided to utilize a computational model of all the youth in the U.S. The computer simulation model represents all the six-to-17-year-olds in the U.S. as virtual agents starting with different ages in the model, and then simulated the daily physical activities of each youth, their growth, the impact of the physical activity on their health, the different chronic medical conditions that could emerge, and the resulting costs over time.

This study shows how eliminating sex disparities in physical activity and sports would not only be the fair thing to do, it would also be economically beneficial for society. Eventually efforts to increase physical activity and sport participation for girls and women could end up paying for themselves and more.”

Bruce Y. Lee, MD, MBA, study’s senior author and professor of health policy and management at CUNY SPH

While there are different potential ways of reducing sex disparities in physical activity, reducing sex disparities in sports participation may be the easiest and most effective way. Sports-related interventions have clearer implementation locations such as schools and athletic associations, along with additional funding pathways apart from school budgets (e.g., recreation centers, community partners, and more). The Public Health Informatics, Computational, and Operations Research (PHICOR) team that is the core of CATCH has been part of the Aspen Institute’s Project Play since 2016. Project Play has made ongoing efforts to reduce sex disparities in sports participation such as developing a Youth Sports Playbook that indicates a number of interventions that can get more female youth playing sports, including encouraging sports sampling, revitalizing in town leagues, carving out time at fields and gyms during prime hours each week for kids to engage in pickup or free play in their neighborhood, and recruiting female coaches who can serve as mentors and role models.

“Sports participation disparities among boys and girls can exist due to fewer opportunities for girls to play sports, especially in high school, and less social support. Our study shows that the cost savings of increasing girls’ sports participation can justify investing in the changes needed to increase it,” says Jessie Heneghan, MCP, co-author and senior analyst at PHICOR.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Program via grant ZIA MD000020. The Socio-Spatial Determinants of Health (SSDH) Laboratory is supported by the Division of Intramural Research at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the NIH Distinguished Scholars Program. Yangyang Deng and Mohammad Moniruzzaman are supported by the NIH Postdoctoral Intramural Research Training Award. Breanna Rogers is supported by the NIH Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award. This work was also supported by the NIH Common Fund’s Nutrition for Precision Health, powered by the All of Us Research Program and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the NIH through Award Number U54TR004279, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality through Grant 1R01HS028165-01, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences as part of the Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study network under Grants R01GM127512 and 3R01GM127512-01A1S1 and the National Science Foundation through Award Number 2054858.