An active behavior is associated with a range of positive social outcomes. Accordingly, the Global Action Plan on physical activity 2018-2030 (World Health Organization, 2008) indicates that the guiding principle of the implementation of the policy action should be based on the active evaluation of impact. PURPOSE: To analyze the 2017 economic and social impact in international Dollar (INT$) of GO fit, the largest leisure center operator in Spain, with 18 facilities and more than 200,000 members.
METHODS: The Social Return on Investment (SROI) was estimated from 114,000 active members, with data collected through the access control of each individual. The SROI is a framework for measuring and understanding non-market economic and social values produced by an organization. For this analysis, reductions in physical and mental health spending, absenteeism costs, disability-adjusted life years avoided, and increases in subjective wellbeing were studied, considering the prevalence of main illnesses and quantifying the annual healthcare cost of an inactive Spanish person.
RESULTS: For the year 2017, GO fit generated more than $378 million of social impact. This includes $27 million on health care spending savings ($23 million in physical illness and $4 million in mental illness), $9 million in savings related to reducing workplace absenteeism, and $87 million derived from the maintained productive capacity as a better quality of life as a result from the disability-adjusted life years prevented. Additionally, $255 million were generated due to improvements in subjective wellbeing among GO fit members. As a positive consequence of this, GO fit contributes to generating benefits among its members valued at $3.17 for every INT$ of turnover.
CONCLUSIONS: An extensive economic and social impact is attributable to the active behavior of GO fit members, indicating the critical role that leisure centers have in improving wellbeing and tackling a myriad of community-level social threats. Examples of this are helping to reduce health care spending, increasing subjective wellbeing, and increasing years without disability. Considering these findings, policymakers should account for leisure centres as an ally in the public health agenda.