Hisham Aljadhey 
Medication Safety Research Chair, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, PO Box 2457, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia;
For correspondence:-
Email: haljadhey@ksu.edu.sa Tel:+966530039008
Received: 10 May 2012
Accepted: 16 October 2012
Published: 13 December 2012
Citation:
Aljadhey H.
Physical Inactivity as a Predictor of High Prevalence of Hypertension and Health Expenditures in the United States: A Cross-Sectional Study. Trop J Pharm Res 2012; 11(6):983-990
doi:
10.4314/tjpr.v11i6.16
© 2012 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Abstract
Purpose: To examine the association between physical activity, prevalence of hypertension, and total healthcare and pharmaceutical expenditure in the United States of America (US).
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, adult United States residents were included from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) for 2002. In the MEPS, physical activity was defined as spending at least 30 min 3 times a week in moderate to vigorous physical activity and the diagnosis of hypertension was based on the patient’s self-report. Logistic and multiple linear regression models were used to calculate the risk of prevalent hypertension in physically inactive individuals and examine the association between physical activity and healthcare expenditure after controlling for confounders.
Results: Hypertensive patients who were physically active accounted for 46 % and the risk of hypertension was higher in physically inactive individuals than in those who were physically active (Odds ratio, 1.1; 95 % Confidence interval, 1.07 to 1.12, p < 0.0001). Physical activity in all individuals was associated with a decrease in total healthcare expenditure by US$592 per person (p < 0.0001) and pharmaceutical expenditure by US$125 per person (p < 0.0001).
Conclusion: Total healthcare and pharmaceutical expenditures were significantly lower for physically active than physically inactive individuals.
Keywords: Physical inactivity, Hypertension, Healthcare expenditure
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