Social value of disabled people’s physical activity (Dec 2024)
Activity Alliance commissioned State of Life to undertake an assessment of disabled people’s physical activity using HM Treasury endorsed methodology. The aim of the study is to understand the impact of ‘more disabled people accessing the health and wellbeing benefits of sport and activity’.
We recognised some gaps regarding the return on investment and the economic impact of participation in sport and physical activity for disabled people. For this report, we focus on measuring the wellbeing benefits. Our measure of wellbeing (life satisfaction) is an all-encompassing measure of a person’s welfare, of which health is only one component (albeit an important one).
Data from Sport England’s ongoing Active Lives Survey (2021-22) highlights how disabled people or those with long-term health conditions are twice as likely to be physically inactive, with 41% inactive compared to 21% of non-disabled people. This activity gap has persisted over the years, and only slightly reduced from 43% and 21% respectively in the first year of data collection (2015-16). Moreover, the level of inactivity increases significantly with the number of impairments an individual has, reaching 48% for those with three or more impairments.
Research in this sector suggests a high rate of social and economic return of getting people active. However, there is less research exploring these benefits among disabled people specifically and very few do this using the 2021 Greenbook-consistent WELLBY methodology of social value estimation.
We aim to address this gap in our assessment using HM Treasury endorsed approaches. This report evidences the individual wellbeing benefits of disabled people being more physically active, in comparison to non-disabled people and explores physical activity at different levels. The analysis underling this report is broadly in-line with the wider work State of Life undertook for Sport England on the primary social value of physical activity.
Can increased activity for disabled people start to bridge this wellbeing gap?
In short, yes. This study aims to evidence the wellbeing benefits, and social value, of disabled people doing more physical activity. We find the wellbeing benefits of physical activity are greater for disabled people than non-disabled people (benefit of being ‘active’ is three or four times greater). Moreover, for disabled people, there are substantial wellbeing benefits in physical activity before the 150 minutes a week guideline is met (approximately two-thirds the benefit from meeting the guideline).
Key findings[1]:
- The wellbeing benefit for disabled people meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s (CMO) weekly ‘active’ guideline (150+ minutes) is high; +0.406 in life satisfaction, a social value of £6,200 per person per year (PPPY).
- For disabled people there are substantial wellbeing benefits (and therefore social value)
in activity before the 150 minutes a week guideline is met:- The social value of ‘doing some moderate activity’ (1 to 149 minutes) is £4,500 (72% of the value of being ‘active’).
- The social value of ‘doing only light activity’ is £4,400 (71% of the value of being ‘active’).
Huge value to society
Applying these individual values to estimates of the disabled population in England (9.1 million) reveals the following:
- The current physical activity levels of disabled people is worth £35.9 billion in social value.
- £3.5 billion of this is generated by the 9% of disabled people who only do ‘light’ activity. Considering them as ‘inactive’ (in adherence with the guidelines) would therefore underestimate the value.
We estimate the ‘activity gap’ at a cost to society of £10.9 billion, i.e. this would be the additional value if activity levels of disabled people were the same as non-disabled people.
Putting a monetary value on wellbeing
Social value is the quantification of the relative importance of changes people experience in their lives. We follow the UK government’s guidance on measuring and valuing social benefits for policy appraisal:[2],[3]
- Measurement should be based on the subjective wellbeing measure of life satisfaction
(on a scale from 0 to 10). - Valuation should utilise the WELLBY (wellbeing-adjusted life year); a change of one point
on the life satisfaction scale, caused by the intervention of interest, affecting one person over a period of one year. It should be valued at £15,300 (in 2023 prices).
Access our reports
You can read the report in various forms:
- Activity Alliance social value report - Executive Summary
- Activity Alliance social value report - Full Report
- Activity Alliance social value infographic summary
- A video explaining the methodology and results summary by State of Life
Accessible formats
[1] Only statistically significant findings which control for other factors (multiple linear regression) are reported here. Wellbeing benefits (increased life satisfaction) are in comparison to ‘no activity’. Significant findings are then converted to a monetary value using the WELLBY. Values are in 2023 prices and are rounded to the nearest £100.
