18 Aug 2023
Getting employees physically active 'cuts company healthcare costs by 35 per cent'
BY Tom Walker
Companies which successfully encourage their employees to become more physically active could see their healthcare costs being cut by more than a third.
A study by corporate wellness platform, Gympass, shows that employees who engaged in physical activities at least five times a month resulted in a 35 per cent decrease in company healthcare costs after a 12 month period.
The research evaluated the difference in healthcare costs for active Gympass users compared to non-users and less active participants.
Data analysis was performed by comparing two test groups (Gympass users with up to four check-ins a month and users with more than five check-ins a month) and a control group (non-users).
The sample included a control group of more than 17,000 employees from Gympass' corporate clients who are not subscribers and more than 2,000 employees who are active subscribers.
They were grouped based on similar gender and age profiles, as well as similar healthcare expenses in the six months prior to the beginning of the study.
After forming the groups, a comparison was made between the average cost of medical care in the six months prior to the first check-in and the average cost in the six months after a 12-month period.
Finally, the data was crossed with healthcare data at the individual level in Brazil from 2019 to 2022 to arrive at the final result.
Neonatal, oncology, home care, transplant and dialysis patients were not included, since their health care costs are not influenced by the practice of physical exercises.
The research was Gympass' first study to correlate the regular practice of physical activity with a reduction in corporate health care costs.
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