Researchers: Exercise Lowers Employers' Health Costs
Fri May 14, 2004 12:48 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Companies can save millions in health-care costs simply by encouraging their employees to exercise a little bit, researchers reported on Friday.
They said obese employees have higher health-care costs, but lowered those expenses by exercising just a couple of times a week -- without even losing any weight.
Feifei Wang and colleagues at the University of Michigan studied 23,500 workers at General Motors.
They estimated that getting the most sedentary obese workers to exercise would have saved about $790,000 a year, or about 1.5 percent of health-care costs for the whole group.
Article: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=5150297