title: 2014 consensus statement from the first Economics of Physical Inactivity Consensus (EPIC) conference (Vancouver).
abstract: This article describes major topics discussed from the 'Economics of Physical Inactivity Consensus Workshop' (EPIC), held in Vancouver, Canada, in April 2011. Specifically, we (1) detail existing evidence on effective physical inactivity prevention strategies; (2) introduce economic evaluation and its role in health policy decisions; (3) discuss key challenges in establishing and building health economic evaluation evidence (including accurate and reliable costs and clinical outcome measurement) and (4) provide insight into interpretation of economic evaluations in this critically important field. We found that most methodological challenges are related to (1) accurately and objectively valuing outcomes; (2) determining meaningful clinically important differences in objective measures of physical inactivity; (3) estimating investment and disinvestment costs and (4) addressing barriers to implementation. We propose that guidelines specific for economic evaluations of physical inactivity intervention studies are developed to ensure that related costs and effects are robustly, consistently and accurately measured. This will also facilitate comparisons among future economic evidence.
authors.affiliation: School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Jennifer C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Department of Public and Occupational Health & EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Evert
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Verhagen
authors.affiliation: Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Stirling
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bryan
authors.affiliation: Centre for Hip Health, Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Liu-Ambrose
authors.affiliation: Business and Economics, University of Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Borland
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, MC-588 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Buchner
authors.affiliation: Department of Public and Occupational Health & EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Department of Human Movement Science, NUTRIM, School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marike R C
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Hendriks
authors.affiliation: Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Weiler
authors.affiliation: University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Morrow
authors.affiliation: Department of Public and Occupational Health & EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Willem
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: van Mechelen
authors.affiliation: Department of Exercise Science, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, South Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Steven N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Blair
authors.affiliation: NCCDPHP, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pratt
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Medicine, University of British Columbia, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada.
authors.forename: Johann
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Windt
authors.affiliation: Centre for Hip Health, Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Hashel
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: al-Tunaiji
authors.affiliation: Centre for Hip Health, Department of Physical Therapy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Macri
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Practice, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Aspetar, Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar.
authors.forename: Karim M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Khan
mesh_terms: D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D001955:British Columbia; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D006291:Health Policy; D006295:Health Resources / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D019057:Quality-Adjusted Life Years; D057185:Sedentary Behavior; D013177:Sports / Q000191:economics
keywords: Exercise; Physical Activity Measurement; Physical Activity Promotion in Primary Care