From October 2002 to April 2005, America On the Move Foundation, a Boston-based nonprofit organization that conducts and supports best practice research on healthy eating and active living, explored the effect of economics on eating and physical activity behaviors.

Under a sub-contract to America on the Move Foundation, researchers from RAND Corporation (a nonprofit research organization based in Santa Monica, Calif.) analyzed existing data on how people use their time and spend their money on food and physical activity and published the findings in a October 2004 supplement to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Abstracts and full text are available online.

Key Findings

From the article by Roland Sturm, "The Economics of Physical Activity: Social Trends and Rationales for Interventions" in the Supplement:

• "Leisure-time industries outpace gross-domestic product growth for both 'active' and 'sedentary' industries, although industries associated with more sedentary lifestyles grow the fastest."
• "Overall time spent in productive activities, whether at home or work, has declined by several hours each week for both men and women compared to 40 years ago."

Key Results

Project staff presented their framework for determinants of physical activity and eating behavior at a forum, "An Economic Analysis of Eating and Physical Activity Behaviors: Exploring Effective Strategies to Combat Obesity," on April 10, 2003, in Washington, D.C. Two expert panels, including representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), USA Today and others, reacted to the findings.

Funding

RWJF provided two grants totaling $89,240 to partially support this project.