Sick people: UK has worst life expectancy rate in Europe
Published time: 11 Sep, 2017
© Luke MacGregor / Reuters
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The UK is poised to become the EUs sick men and people as its life
expectancy has stalled, a leading world health expert has claimed.
Women in the UK are expected to live until the age of 83, making them the
group in the EU with the slowest growth in life expectancy, lagging behind
countries such as Spain and France by three years.
British men languished just above the EU average of 79, though seven EU
countries expected men to live until the age of 80.
Sir Michael Marmot, director of the Institute of Health Equity at University
College London (UCL), called on Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to open an
inquiry into why life expectancy rates in Britain are not at the same level
of other countries across Europe, saying austerity is an obvious
candidate.
Were this to keep up, we would soon become the sick man and woman of
Europe. This is a new and worrying trend, Marmot wrote in the Times.
His appeal follow a previous warning in July that life expectancy in Britain
is slowing down because of the pressures the public health service is
currently facing.
His group of UCL researchers found that women are living an extra year every
decade, while men are doing so every six years.
But that compares to rates in 2010 where Britons were gaining an extra year
every four years.
I am deeply concerned with the leveling off, I expected it to just keep
getting better.
I would say it is a matter of urgency to try and examine why this has
happened.
I am deeply concerned that if we do not fund health care and social care
adequately people will lead much worse lives, Marmot said.
If we dont spend appropriately on social care, if we dont spend
appropriately on health care, then certainly the quality of life will get
worse for older people and maybe the length of life too.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said, according to the Guardian: Health
inequality is a challenging and complex area deeply rooted, difficult to
turn around and driven by a variety of factors.
Despite widespread variation, smoking rates are at an all-time low and
cancer survival rates at a record high.
We are investing more than £16bn in local government services over the
current spending period to help tackle public health issues, in addition to
free NHS health checks, screening programs and funding for campaigns such as
Be Clear on Cancer.
Divided England: Northerners more likely to die early than Southerners
Published time: 8 Aug, 2017
© Phil Noble / Reuters
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Young people in the North of England are 50 percent more likely to die
prematurely than those in the South as a result of what academics have
termed a disease of despair.
A new study, led by the University of Manchester, found there were 49
percent more deaths among Northerners aged between 35 and 44 in 2015, while
there were 29 percent more among the 25-34 bracket. This is up from two
percent in the 1960s.
The research, which used Office for National Statistics (ONS) data from 1965
to 2015, also found that, generally, Northerners are 20 percent more likely
to die before the age of 75 than Southerners.
Five decades of death records tell a tale of two Englands, north and south,
divided by resources and life expectancy a profound inequality resistant
to the public health interventions of successive governments, said lead
researcher Iain Buchan from the University of Manchester.
A new approach is required, one that must address the economic and social
factors that underpin early deaths, especially in younger populations, and
one that focuses on rebalancing the wider economy to help drive investment
in northern towns and cities.
The research defined the North as the North East, North West, Yorkshire and
the Humber, East Midlands and West Midlands.
The South, on the other hand, included the East, South West, London and
South East.
Buchan suggested the trauma of de-industrialization back in the 1980s may
have been a driving factor in the rise of premature deaths in the North, as
it created a profound and worsening structural inequality in England.
People in the North aged between 25 and 44 are most likely to die from
suicide, drugs, accidents, and alcohol-fuelled liver disease, while heart
disease is also common after the age of 40.
It is unprecedented, said Buchan said, according to the Times.
From the 1960s through the 1970s and 1980s there was no difference in the
death rates of young people but a large gap opens up in the mid-1990s.
Theres a stagnation of progress in the north.
Buchan proposed a devolution of powers to tackle inequality between
Englands regions, while he also stressed the importance of more funds being
set aside for investment in the North.
Ed Morrow, of the Royal Society for Public Health, backed this up and said:
People in the north are playing with a handicap. Health follows wealth, he
said.
This inequity can only be fully tackled through a fundamental rebalancing
of the UK economy.
A government spokeswoman contested the divergence in opportunities between
the North and the South.
This Government is committed to creating a society where everybody gets the
opportunity to make a success of their hard work regardless of where they
are from, she said.
EM
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