Unhealthy behaviours and socioeconomic barriers together contribute to 37 per cent of Ontario’s healthcare costs, at a burden of $134 billion over 10 years. However, healthy living improvements such as smoking cessation programs saved 1.9 per cent of the total costs in that period, or $4.9 billion.
In their report "A $4.9 Billion Decrease in Healthcare Expenditure: The Ten-Year Impact of Improving Smoking, Alcohol, Diet and Physical Activity in Ontario" the researchers from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa say that these findings could provide Ontario with a road map for reducing healthcare costs by creating policies to target and improve other unhealthy behaviours such as poor diet, lack of exercise and alcohol misuse.
ICES scientist Doug Manuel, the report's lead researcher, discusses the report.
Visit our YouTube page to view the video.
