What are the most cost effective ways of promoting physical exercise in adults?

A study published in the open access journal PLoS Medicine has found that of six interventions promoting exercise in adults in Australia, encouraging the use of pedometers and promoting physical activity through mass media campaigns are the most cost-effective in terms of the money spent for the health benefits they result in.

Considered as a package, researchers at the University of Queensland also conclude that these six interventions could reduce death and illness from heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes in Australia, with an overall cost saving for the health sector.

Despite its image as a sporting nation, physical inactivity in Australia, in common with many countries in the developed world and an increasing number of developing countries, is a major public health problem.

Source: PLoS Medicine