People in UK spend fewer years in good health than a decade ago, study finds | Health

People in the UK are spending fewer years in good health than a decade ago, raising concerns that the health status of the population is “going backwards”.

Britain’s sharp decline in healthy life expectancy, the time a person spends without illness or disability, contrasts sharply with its recent rise in most of the world’s other rich countries.

The health of the UK population is poor, deteriorating and not seeing the same steady improvement seen in countries such as Japan, Norway and Spain, according to a new analysis of healthy life expectancy in 21 countries by the Health Foundation think tank. It increased on average by four tenths of a year in the 20 other comparable countries.

Healthy life expectancy for men in the UK increased from 62.9 years in the period 2012-2014 to 60.7 years in 2022-2024 and from 63.7 to 60.9 years for women over the same period, the report said.

This means the proportion of life a man spends in good health has increased from 79% to 77%, and for a woman, from 77% to 73%, according to analysis by the Office for National Statistics.

The decline in Britons’ health in recent years is so great that in more than 90% of the UK people now begin to suffer from illness before the state pension age of 66, the study reveals.

“These findings reveal a harsh truth: health in the UK is in decline,” said Dr Jennifer Dixon, chief executive of the Health Foundation. “The dashboard lights are flashing red. We are the most obese country in Western Europe, mental health problems have reached unprecedented levels and more people than ever are living with chronic health problems.”

The think tank said obesity – which leads to more cases of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer – and high numbers of deaths caused by alcohol, drugs and suicide help explain the loss of two years of disease-free life. But deteriorating people’s health and deep health inequalities between rich and poor are also key factors, the report adds.

Neither Covid nor overall life expectancy, which remains stable, are at the origin of this decline. “This suggests that the UK’s deterioration is not inevitable, but reflects country-specific factors,” the analysis concludes. Health experts consider healthy life expectancy the best way to measure a country’s health. It is calculated from mortality rates and self-reported health surveys.

“The UK’s health is in decline and lags behind most other comparable countries,” it adds.

The report reveals that the UK is one of five countries where healthy life expectancy has fallen, falling from 14th to 20th in the international ranking of 21 countries, with only the US below.

The findings help explain why a record 2.8 million people are too ill to work, deaths are rising among 25 to 49 year olds and a growing number of 16 to 24 year olds are not in school, employment or training because they have a physical or mental health problem, the think tank added.

In response to the grim picture painted by the analysis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said it was a “disgrace” that the UK population was increasingly in poor health. He pointed to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which will receive royal assent this week, and the ban on junk food advertising before 9pm on television as evidence of his “radical” approach to tackling the problem.

The reduction in the length of time people enjoy good health has had “a huge human and economic cost, with poor health excluding people from the labor market and excluding young people from education, employment and training, thereby increasing the cost of welfare”, Dixon added.

Governments have done too little to address the growing burden of often preventable diseases, she said. “Successive governments, including the current government, knew this but failed to take the necessary action. Turning the tide requires a new approach that goes well beyond fixing the NHS and tackles the root causes of poor health,” she said.

Ministers should force food companies to make their products healthier, introduce a minimum unit price for alcohol in England, as Scotland has done, and tackle drug-related harm, Dixon urged.

The UK experiences deep and growing inequalities in healthy life expectancy. It is highest in the wealthy Richmond upon Thames area of ​​London, where the average man enjoys a healthy 69.3 years and the average woman a healthy 70.3 years. However, in contrast, the average man in Blackpool is only 50.9 years old and the average woman in Hartlepool is only 51.2 years old.

Labour’s manifesto pledged to “tackle the social determinants of health, halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest areas of England”.

A DHSC spokesperson said: “It’s a shame that as a nation our health has deteriorated over the last decade. That’s why we’re committed to tackling health inequalities and building a healthier Britain.

“The government is already taking radical steps, such as the generational smoking ban and cracking down on junk food advertising to children, to help parents raise the healthiest generation of children possible.

“We know there is still more to do, but by building an NHS fit for the future, we will help people live much longer, whatever their background. »