Health Economic Evaluations on interventions promoting physical activity among children and adolescents : A literature review

Abstract: Physical activity among children and adolescents around the world is decreasing and will imply negative effects on their current and future health, which also contributes to higher costs for the society. Interventions promoting physical activity among youths could increase their physical activity and, at the same time, reduce the costs for society. The purpose of this study is to evaluate interventions for increased physical activity targeted towards children and adolescents from a health economic perspective. The results indicate that there exist different types of interventions and that the choice of health economic evaluation method differs widely between studies. In order for policymakers to choose the most effective interventions that allocate the society’s scarce resources in the best way, there is a need for a more streamlined methodological approach for health economic evaluations of the interventions that promote psychical activity among children and adolescents.