Italy: Palermo calculates benefits of walking just 10 additional minutes per day

Palermo is a city on the north-western coast of Sicily with a population of around 1.2 million. The city was part of the Supporting Policy and Action for Active Environments (SPAcE) project, funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme.

CESIE, an environment and health agency, coordinated the project in conjunction with the Municipality of Palermo. They produced an action plan with the aim of creating a school culture that promotes active lifestyles among children and young people, and supporting the development of school environments that facilitate and increase regular physical activity to reduce inactivity and prevent childhood obesity.

CESIE wanted to use WHO/Europe’s health economic assessment tool (HEAT) to provide general support for the plan, and to encourage the city to invest in cycling and walking. It was not possible to use HEAT to calculate direct impacts on school children, as the tool does not apply to children. It was also very difficult to access data on levels of walking or cycling in the city.

CESIE therefore carried out a simple calculation to make the case more generally for investment in walking. It set out to answer the question: What would be the benefits if every adult in Palermo walked for just 10 minutes more per day?

It chose 10 minutes because of its perception as a reasonable increase in walking. As this simple calculation only needs population data, it can be used by any city.

HEAT calculations showed that, if the adult population of Palermo walked for just 10 minutes more every day, 81 lives would be saved annually at a value of €222 million per year.

CESIE has already used these results, and local partners will use them in the future to estimate costs and benefits for developing infrastructure that promotes walking.

Full details of this case study are available on the SPAcE website.