The health and economic benefits of reducing disease risk factors

• VicHealth

Read the full text

06 November 2009“How much is it worth?” is a frequently asked question in the context of preventative health and health promotion. However well-justified, this query can be challenging to answer because preventative health’s many benefits can’t always be assessed in mere dollar terms. Many regard the quality of life that accompanies good health as being valuable beyond measure.

This new report tackles this challenge head on. It estimates the ‘health status’, ‘economic’ and ‘financial’ benefits of reducing the prevalence of the six behavioural risk factors that contribute to chronic diseases affecting millions of Australians. These major risk factors concern obesity, alcohol, smoking, exercise, diet and domestic violence.

This report has been prepared by staff at Deakin University and the National Stroke Research Institute. 

[NB if you have trouble opening this report, download the file and amend the file type by replacing .ashx with .pdf]