Vitality has found that even small amounts of regular exercise can cut the average costs per claim for its members needing hospital treatments.
Analysis of Vitality data for in-hospital and day treatment for musculoskeletal, oncology and cardiovascular claims between 2017 and 2021 found that the more active Vitality members were, the lower their claims costs.
Members who regularly engaged in physical activity over the time period of the analysis, (equivalent to at least one moderately active day per week), were found to have a significant reduction in their claim’s costs, with a reduction of 31% for musculoskeletal claims, 37% for cancer claims and 46% for cardiovascular claims compared to those not recording activity.
The data was taken from Vitality’s upcoming Health Claims Insights report, which will be published in full on 8 June at a special Business Update event.
Dr Keith Klintworth, managing director at VitalityHealth, said: “It is clear from our data that even a moderate amount of regular activity can have a large impact on health outcomes.
“This new data highlights how important keeping active is to our health and shows why our shared value approach to insurance, which incentivises and rewards people who make positive lifestyle choices, alongside providing high quality insurance products, is ever more relevant.”
The data also explored the impact of the pandemic and gyms closing. Vitality found its members turned to digital workouts at home, offered through their Vitality membership, enabling them to sustain similar levels of physical activity to what they were doing pre pandemic. The data indicates the pandemic also appeared to change the type of workouts people did with a 49% increase in cardio workouts in 2021 compared to 2019.
