Aperçu

Résumé (français)

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Résumé (anglais)

Recent epidemiological literature shows that regular physical activity is effective in preventing several chronic diseases, and is associated with a reduced risk of premature death. In an effort to estimate the impact of physical activity on demand for hospital services, previous studies use cross sectional data sets. Estimated association in cross sectional studies could be due to factors that cannot be controlled in a cross sectional design. These factors could be time variant or unobserved time invariant characteristics of the individuals. Hence, the cross sectional studies over or under-estimate the true effects of exercise on demand for hospital services. Using a panel data set from Canada, and panel data regression models, this study will fill this gap in the literature. The results show that physical exercise decreases the demand for hospital services, and its marginal effect decreases as physical activity increases.