title: Participation in fitness-related activities of an incentive-based health promotion program and hospital costs: a retrospective longitudinal study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A retrospective, longitudinal study examined changes in participation in fitness-related activities and hospital claims over 5 years amongst members of an incentivized health promotion program offered by a private health insurer.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 3-year retrospective observational analysis measuring gym visits and participation in documented fitness-related activities, probability of hospital admission, and associated costs of admission.
  
  
  METHODS
  A South African private health plan, Discovery Health and the Vitality health promotion program.
  
  
  METHODS
  304,054 adult members of the Discovery medical plan, 192,467 of whom registered for the health promotion program and 111,587 members who were not on the program.
  
  
  METHODS
  Members were incentivised for fitness-related activities on the basis of the frequency of gym visits.
  
  
  METHODS
  Changes in electronically documented gym visits and registered participation in fitness-related activities over 3 years and measures of association between changes in participation (years 1-3) and subsequent probability and costs of hospital admission (years 4-5). Hospital admissions and associated costs are based on claims extracted from the health insurer database.
  
  
  METHODS
  The probability of a claim modeled by using linear logistic regression and costs of claims examined by using general linear models. Propensity scores were estimated and included age, gender, registration for chronic disease benefits, plan type, and the presence of a claim during the transition period, and these were used as covariates in the final model.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was a significant decrease in the prevalence of inactive members (76% to 68%) over 5 years. Members who remained highly active (years 1-3) had a lower probability (p < .05) of hospital admission in years 4 to 5 (20.7%) compared with those who remained inactive (22.2%). The odds of admission were 13% lower for two additional gym visits per week (odds ratio, .87; 95% confidence interval [CI], .801-.949).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We observed an increase in fitness-related activities over time amongst members of this incentive-based health promotion program, which was associated with a lower probability of hospital admission and lower hospital costs in the subsequent 2 years.
authors.affiliation: UCT/MRC Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town South Africa.
authors.forename: Deepak
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Estelle V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.forename: Roseanne
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Greyling
authors.forename: Tracy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kolbe-Alexander
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Noach
authors.forename: Jaco
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Conradie
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nossel
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Borresen
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gaziano
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods; D017721:Hospital Costs; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007345:Insurance Claim Review / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000458:organization & administration; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010809:Physical Fitness; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013019:South Africa; D055815:Young Adult