Assessing the economic costs of unhealthy diets and low physical activity: An evidence review and proposed framework.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review and economic modeling framework (graded by design analogy, not clinical CEBM)
What was done
Reviewed literature on the economic costs linked to unhealthy diets and low physical activity, analyzed differences in definitions and cost-estimation methodologies, and demonstrated a disease-based cost-estimation framework using new type 2 diabetes cases across five European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom).
What was found
Unhealthy diets and low physical activity predicted higher healthcare expenditure, though published estimates varied substantially. Indirect costs from lost productivity were estimated to be approximately twice as high as direct healthcare costs, together accounting for about 0.5% of national income. A disease-based projection model estimated the total economic burden from new type 2 diabetes cases attributable to these two risk factors at €883 million in 2020 across the five European countries analyzed.
Why it matters
Highlights that traditional healthcare-only economic evaluations markedly underestimate the true societal burden of poor nutrition and sedentary behavior by omitting indirect productivity losses.
Limits
The abstract does not state the number of studies reviewed or search methodology. Projections depend on modeling assumptions and focus narrowly on type 2 diabetes in five European nations, leaving out other chronic conditions linked to diet and physical inactivity.
Cited by
- supports Two-thirds of the economic cost of diet-related illness in the UK is due to lost tax revenue and workforce absence rather than direct healthcare/drug costs.