The impact of sports participation on medication costs among adolescents: ABCD-Growth Study

The economic impact of physical activity (PA) has been extensively investigated among adults, but few studies have analyzed this issue in pediatric populations. To analyze the relationship of costs attributed to medicine use with the time spent in different intensities of PA and sports participation among adolescents. A sample of 92 adolescents were tracked for 28 weeks. The main outcome was the overall cost attributed to medicine use (assessed weekly [US$]). Independent variables were moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) outside sports and sportive MVPA, assessed in three time points (baseline, 14 weeks and 28 weeks) by accelerometers (min/day). A total of 53 boys and 39 girls, with a mean age of 14.54 (1.96) years, were evaluated. Sedentary time (rho= 0.217 [95%CI: 0.006 to 0.420]) and MVPA + Sportive MVPA (-0.250 [95%CI: -0.447 to -0.130]) were related to costs attributed to medicine use. When the multivariate model considered sedentary time as a covariate, the relationship between MVPA + Sportive MVPA and costs attributed to medicine use became non-significant (beta= -0.007 [95%CI: -0.017 to 0.004]; p-value= 0.206). The time spent in MVPA was inversely related to the medication costs accumulated through the follow-up period, while sedentary time appears to counteract these benefits.

Publication History

Received: 22 January 2025

Accepted after revision: 30 April 2025

Accepted Manuscript online:
30 April 2025