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Effect of Physical Activity on Hospital Service Use and Expenditures of Patients with Coronary Heart Disease: Results from Dongfeng-Tongji Cohort Study in China

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Summary

The intervention of behaviors, including physical activity (PA), has become a strategy for many hospitals dealing with patients with chronic diseases. Given the limited evidence available about PA and healthcare use with chronic diseases, this study explored the association between different levels of PA and annual hospital service use and expenditure for inpatients with coronary heart disease (CHD) in China. We analyzed PA information from the first follow-up survey (2013) of the Dongfeng-Tongji cohort study of 1460 CHD inpatients. We examined factors such as PA exercise volume and years of PA and their associations with the number of inpatient visits, number of hospital days, and inpatient costs and total medical costs. We found that the number of hospital days and the number of inpatient visits were negatively associated with intensity of PA level. Similarly, total inpatient and outpatient costs declined when the PA exercise volume levels increased. Furthermore, there were also significant associations between the number of hospital days, inpatient costs or total medical costs and levels of PA years. This study provides the first empirical evidence about the effects of the intensity and years of PA on hospital service use and expenditure of CHD in China. It suggests that the patients’ PA, especially the vigorous PA, should be promoted widely to the public and patients in order to relieve the financial burden of CHD.

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Acknowledgments

We thank all study participants and staff of the Health Examination Center of the Dongfeng Central Hospital and the Medical Insurance Center of DMC for their generous help. We also thank the interviewers from the retirement management office of DMC and from Tongji Medical College, HUST. The Dongfeng-Tongji Cohort Study is a collaboration among the Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the DMC and the Harvard School of Public Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Medicine and Health Management, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Fang Wang, Liu-yi Zhang, Ping Zhang, Yao Cheng, Bei-zhu Ye & Yuan Liang

  2. Institute of Occupational Medicine and the Ministry of Education (MOE) Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Mei-an He, Huan Guo, Xiao-min Zhang, Jing Yuan, Wei-hong Chen, You-jie Wang & Ping Yao

  3. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Ministry of Education (MOE) Key Lab of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Sheng Wei

  4. School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7JA, UK

    Yi-mei Zhu

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  1. Fang Wang
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Correspondence to Yuan Liang.

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This work was supported by China Medical Board and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, HUST (No. 2015XJGH014).

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Wang, F., Zhang, Ly., Zhang, P. et al. Effect of Physical Activity on Hospital Service Use and Expenditures of Patients with Coronary Heart Disease: Results from Dongfeng-Tongji Cohort Study in China. CURR MED SCI 39, 483–492 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-019-2063-x

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