Physical activity and sedentary behavior in the primary costs of health services among adults with cardiovascular diseases: 12-month follow-up

Abstract

Physical inactivity and high sedentary behavior are predisposing factors to cardiovascular disease and increased spending on health services. The study aims to verify the effect of the practice of physical activity and sedentary behavior, in an isolated and aggregated way, on costs with primary health care services and the incidence of diseases over a 12-month period and how they impact on costs with health. Health service costs were verified using information recorded in each patient's medical records. To verify sedentary behavior, the Mielke questionnaire was used, and physical inactivity was verified using the Baecke questionnaire. Comparison between groups was verified using the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests. Categorical data were treated using the McNemar test. The p-value was fixed at values lower than 5%, and the software used was STATA 13.0. In the first evaluation, 18% of the evaluated were classified with ≥8 hours of sedentary behavior daily and 74.4% classified <P75AFH, after 12 months 20.3% were classified with ≥8 hours of sedentary behavior daily and 71.1% with < P75AFH. Variations in habitual physical activity levels and sedentary behavior, as well as disease incidence, did not affect primary health care costs, however, those classified ≥P75AFH and <8hCS at both times of the survey, had lower expenses with medication compared to those who presented variation in these variables.These results reinforce the need for effective proposals to reduce sedentary time and increase the practice of physical activity, promoting collective health and contributing to the reduction of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the population.