The economic costs of excessive sedentary behaviour in Japan

Estimating the economic costs of excessive sedentary behaviour is essential for bridging the gap between policy development and implementation. We estimated economic costs of chronic diseases associated with excessive sedentary behaviour among Japanese adults.

The prevalence-based and population-attributable fraction approaches were used to estimate the economic costs of excessive sedentary behaviour (≥8 hours of daily sitting) with Japanese national datasets in 2021. Direct healthcare and indirect costs and total costs for seven chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, associated with excessive sedentary behaviour were estimated.

The total costs of chronic diseases due to excessive sedentary behaviour were ~¥282.5 billion (95% CI: ¥258.9-¥306.0 billion). The total direct healthcare costs of chronic diseases due to excessive sedentary behaviour were ~¥238.4 billion (95% CI: ¥215.3 billion-¥261.5 billion) and the indirect costs were ¥44.1 billion (95% CI: ¥24.3 billion-¥61.0 billion). Outpatient direct healthcare costs were highest for diabetes, whereas inpatient direct healthcare costs were highest for dementia.

This study highlights the importance of addressing excessive sedentary behaviour, which could contribute to reducing the healthcare costs for highly prevalent chronic diseases and ultimately to a more sustainable healthcare system in Japan.