Economic evaluation of ‘Men on the Move’, a ‘real world’ community-based physical activity programme for men

Abstract

Background Physical activity (PA) interventions capable of producing health benefits cost effectively are a public health priority across the Western world. ‘Men on the Move’ (MOM), a community-based PA intervention for men, demonstrated significant health benefits up to 52-weeks (W) post-baseline. This article details the economic evaluation of MOM with a view to determining its cost-effectiveness as a public health intervention to be rolled out nationally in Ireland. Methods Cost-effectiveness was determined by comparing the costs (direct and indirect) of the programme to its benefits, which were captured as the impact on quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). For the benefits, cost–utility analysis was conducted by retrospectively adapting various health-related measures of participants to generate health states using Brazier et al.’s (2002) short form-6D algorithm. This in turn allowed for ‘utility measures’ to be generated, from which QALYs were derived. Results Findings show MOM to be cost-effective in supporting an ‘at risk’ cohort of men achieves significant improvements in aerobic fitness, weight loss and waist reduction. The total cost per participant (€125.82 for each of the 501 intervention participants), the QALYs gained (11.98 post-12-W intervention, or 5.3% health improvement per participant) and estimated QALYs ratio costs of €3723 represents a cost-effective improvement when compared to known QALY guidelines. Conclusions The analysis shows that the cost per QALY achieved by MOM is significantly less than the existing benchmarks of £20 000 and €45 000 in the UK and Ireland respectively, demonstrating MOM to be cost-effective.

An Economic Evaluation of ‘Sheds for Life’: A Community-Based Men’s Health Initiative for Men’s Sheds in Ireland

“…Moreover, previous studies involving participants both from Sheds and the general population have posited that older people re-calibrate their self-rating of health relative to what they think is reasonable for their age [ 11 , 40 ]. However, when comparing these findings to a comparable study, Men on the Move participants had baseline utility scores of 0.630 in the IG and 0.664 in CG, which are significantly lower than those of Shedders in this study [ 25 ]. The difference between Shedders baseline utility scores compared to men in the general community setting may be due to the inherent health-enhancing benefits of the Sheds, which have long been cited in research [ 7 , 10 , 11 , 16 , 41 ].…”

“…Therefore, the findings fill an important gap in the literature by assessing the cost effectiveness of a tailored and gender-specific health promotion initiative (SFL) targeted at an HTR cohort of men in the Shed setting. Findings also build upon the recommendations of a previous community-based physical activity program designed for middle-aged men, Men on the Move, which highlights the efficacy of gender-specific, community-based men’s health initiatives that can effectively engage men and are also cost saving [ 25 ]. Moreover, advocates of implementation science have called upon public health practitioners and researchers to assess implementation outcomes and incorporate cost analysis into evaluation in order to encourage the translation of research into practice [ 39 ].…”

“…The research also determined that health interventions that can encourage a modest annual reduction in risk factors can have an important public health and cost-saving impact. For example, an economic evaluation of Men on the Move (a community-based physical activity program for middle-aged men) demonstrated the program to be cost-effective in support of an at-risk cohort of men with an estimated QALYs ratio cost of €3723, which is significantly less that the existing benchmark of €20,000 to €45,000 [ 25 ]. Notwithstanding the utility of Sheds in engaging more marginalized subpopulations of men, programs for Shed members also have the potential to be cost saving.…”

Physical activity as an intervention in severe mental illness

“…Although community-based exercise interventions are increasingly demonstrated as being cost-effective in non-SMI populations (Kelly 2021), similar data in SMI groups are lacking (Czosnek 2019).…”

Cost-effectiveness calculators for health, well-being and safety promotion: a systematic review

“…During the last few decades there has been increased interest in evaluating the outcomes of health, well-being and safety promotion interventions. They have been evaluated in relation to morbidity, mortality 5 and everyday safety. 6 In addition, evaluating the financial cost of such interventions has made it possible to compare them and apply broad impact measures.…”