{"id":759445,"date":"2024-03-13T08:25:56","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T06:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=759445"},"modified":"2024-03-13T08:26:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T06:26:02","slug":"an-easy-way-for-south-africa-to-save-r6-3-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/759445\/an-easy-way-for-south-africa-to-save-r6-3-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"An easy way for South Africa to save R6.3 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa is facing a healthcare crisis, and data from Discovery Vitality has examined several ways to make the population healthier – and save money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Vitality Habit Index, insufficient physical activity is associated with up to 5 million premature deaths globally every year, and estimates suggest that one in five deaths is associated with a poor diet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Index mapped the physical activity and nutrition behaviours across one million Vitality members in South Africa and the United Kingdom over a 10-year period to determine how healthy habits can lead to healthier lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Health Organization estimates that 27.5% of adults and 81% of adolescents are physically inactive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this level of inactivity continues, new cases of preventable non-communicable diseases (such as type 2 diabetes) will cost health systems $27 billion (R500 billion) each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa is not isolated from this crisis, with over 20 million (more than half) of South African adults <\/a>being overweight or obese. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In South Africa<\/a>, about 31% of adult men, 68% of adult women, and 13% of children between the ages of 6-14 years are overweight or obese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there are small steps that can reduce these health risks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People who formed and sustained a habit of doing physical activity three or more times a week for three years saw a 27% reduction in their mortality risk.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This cohort of people also reduced their healthcare costs by up to 13%. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those over 65 see a greater benefit with a 52% reduction in mortality risk when they form or sustain a doing physical activity three or more times a week for three years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For inactive people, even walking 2,500 steps four times a week can reduce their mortality risk by up to 15%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking more specifically, people who sustained a habit of 10,000 steps three times a week for
three years saw a 41% reduction in type 2 diabetes risk, while those following the same exercise routine would see a 36% reduction in the risk of stage 4 cancer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discovery also said that the most effective way of creating a healthy habit is by taking small steps: <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Source: Discovery<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Healthcare savings<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Habit Index findings showed that these habit formations can unlock significant cost savings, but less than 5% of healthcare spending goes towards preventative healthcare services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We calculate at 13.9% saving in-hospital cost for the Discovery Health Medical Scheme base<\/strong>, which is about R6.3 billion saving per year<\/strong> if half of the inactive adult population began consistently walking 5,000 steps once a week and those who have poor exercise habits began consistently walking 5,000 steps three times per week,” Discovery told BusinessTech. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The South African member base is younger than the UK population, so the saving is a conservative estimate<\/strong>.\u00a0This is because the impact of a positive change in exercise increases with age.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If half of the UK’s inactive adult population began walking 5,000 steps once a week, the in-hospital cost-saving would be \u00a34 billion (R95 billion). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would jump to \u00a315 billion (R356 billion) if exercise is increased to 5,000 steps three times a week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read<\/strong>: Alarm bells for middle-class and rich South Africans<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A study by Vitality shows that following simple steps can lead to not only a healthier lifestyle but also reduce healthcare costs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":664243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[4883,26],"class_list":["post-759445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-discovery","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759445"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":759745,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759445\/revisions\/759745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}