AIBU to think poor health in later life is a UK problem?

They also have some great longevity. Hillly terrain and fish help apparently, similar features to the Mediterranean populations (they are very obese though)

No it's not upmarket and the people I saw today probably reinforced what the report is saying about those in lower income brackets having worse health.

Housing and income must play a part but a huge part of it is the way people chose to care for themselves.

Japan have one of the lowest obesity rates. Culturally they are pretty different to the U.K. on societal non acceptance of being over weight.

Is this wrong then? (Serious question, it doesn’t seem to be)

The chart's really fascinating. Some countries made huge improvements in recent years. Was this because of a change in measurement? Or was it a real change in results? If it's the latter it would be really well worth learning about what those countries did to see improvements.

Also worth learning from Japan who are always top.

Really interesting that the US is consistently the worst. What a disgrace from the country with the highest household wealth on earth.

I’ve now looked at actual life expectancy and the UK is quite low, lower than Spain, France, Italy, Ireland etc. Similar to Germany. Higher than the US. So probably ignore my previous post 😂

I think we need to get over this idea that we are a ‘rich country’. We are a poor country with a few rich people.

It’s now being reported that we are poorer than the poorest state in America. In terms of gdp per capita, Poland is set to overtake us within a few years.

I thought similarly. I know very few people whose health has declined as early as 60. From a quick look at the article the “healthy life expectancy” is self-reported. So no objective measurement of what constitutes healthy life. I am always very suspicious of inter-country research which is based on self-reported measures. Perhaps we just moan more in the UK? Perhaps it’s less acceptable to say you feel unhealthy in another country? Who knows. I think comparing life expectancy between countries would probably be more meaningful.

I also think this isn’t just an aging issue. Perhaps our benefits system encourages more people to define themselves as unhealthy at a younger age than other countries.

I think it varied by area, but when I was growing up in the 80s NONE of my friends' mothers worked full time while we were primary age until one of them got divorced, but then her DD just became a bit of a latchkey kid. There really weren't many childcare options at the time.

My gm was also a STAHM when her children were small, re-starting work when her eldest was around 13.

Take personal responsibility everyone, stop looking for someone else to blame for your health, happiness, motivation, wellbeing, social events.

Yes, I know that, I was referring to the old style list of courses, the times, the venues, the dates, sign up, turn up and meet up! I'm old now and I do use meet up groups but I have found that a lot of them that are well established have "cliques" of the founder members IYSWIM, and it can be difficult in SOME cases to break through. That might be a "me" problem being a bit of a wallflower! But I take your point.

Why would you think that?

Lots of places suffered terribly and I'm not suggesting there wasn't plenty of suffering to go around. But the UK bore the brunt of the economic impact taking on more debt per capita than any of the allies. We were essentially bankrupt at the end of the war. This had a huge impact on our ability to recover economically in the post war years and invest in new infrastructure. We compounded this by putting significant money into maintaining our global military presence - though that has had some advantages for us and the rest of Europe.

I mean, it was a general point in a conversation about societal changes, I’m not sure she needs you to patronisingly explain how she can meet more people

Loads of meet up groups online and in person. Google is your best friend.

Thank you for that- this is such an interesting chart- look at the major change in most countries, only Japan and USA (top and bottom) remaining steady.

there will be some relatively to the uks position, it won’t be just about features of the uk but rather the features of the other countries over the time period.

I don't think that's the point really, evening classes were a point of contact, of social interraction, and connection. Now most interests/hobbies covered by the former night classes (if available) are solitary and mostly online.

I disagree, there is more avaialbility that ever to learn and educate yourself....try asking google or chatgpt

https://www.health.org.uk/reports-and-analysis/briefings/uk-mortality-trends-and-international-comparisons

This report tells us the mortality rate has risen in 25 to 49 years olds, depressingly.

This would be a good start.

Where would you start for the biggest wins?

https://www.health.org.uk/reports-and-analysis/analysis/healthy-life-expectancy-trends-in-the-uk-a-watershed-moment

21 countries are listed here.

Sorry, got that the wrong way round. I meant that all the countries above us also have fewer SAHMs than they used to... duh.

Which countries? It’s not clear from the article what countries have been compared. Denmark, for example, cited above is nowhere near the top 20 richest countries in the world

Denmark?

There is an abundance of SAHMs in all the countries that outscore us...