OBJECTIVES: To create an Evidence Map of economic model studies for exercise therapy including the disease, population, type of activity, study methodology and geographical settings in which these studies were conducted.

METHODS: We searched the heoro.com database (www.heoro.com) for economic evaluations of exercise therapy published between 2015 and the 16^th May 2018, and analysed the abstracts identified by the search to determine the types of economic model cited across the range of categories. We presented the results as an Evidence Map.

RESULTS: We found a total of 100 abstracts of cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, cost-utility or other economic models across 13 jurisdictions. Of these abstracts, 38 were cost-effectiveness models, 63 were cost-utility models, 10 were cost-benefit models and 5 were cost-consequence or cost-minimisation models. Healthy individuals with no disease were the most popular population (24 studies), followed by musculoskeletal disorders (15 abstracts), cardiovascular diseases and cancer (6 studies each), and dementia and respiratory disorders (5 studies each). The UK was the most frequent location for the studies (24 abstracts) followed by the USA (23), Australia (13), the Netherlands (8) and Canada (5). The studies most frequently concerned adults (24) and the elderly (20). Of the specified activity types, home based training was the most widely modelled (10 abstracts), followed by physiotherapy (5), but most studies did not specify the type of exercise.

CONCLUSIONS: Economic model studies for exercise therapy have most commonly explored home based training methods and focused on healthy individuals, although a large proportion (58%) of the interventions were unspecified.