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

[BePunnyLilacCrow]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20q07w3gl9o

I just read an article about healthy life expectancy in the UK, and I find it quite sad that we are basically at the bottom of the list among the world’s richest countries. Even the US is better than the UK on average??

Life expectancy in the UK is:

Men: ~79-80 years
Women: ~83-84 years

BUT

Men spend about 19–20 years in poorer health
Women spend about 22–23 years in poorer health

I know that the UK has relatively good overall life expectancy, but that mainly means we are keeping people alive for longer. Unfortunately, those extra years are often not spent in good health. These facts are not true for wealthier parts of the UK, but even the more affluent areas still tend to have lower healthy life expectancy than many average European countries. I am curious what
people think about the contributing factors? I think:

• Weaker family/social connections (I seriously think this is a big one)
• Obviously diet + high consumption of UPFs
• Low every day
activity (again, loneliness contributes to this esp. for the elderly)

There are many reasons, but in my opinion these contribute a lot. Especially weak social life I see in the UK compared to most countries I’ve lived/been to. For example something as simple as cooking together with people, or for family gatherings etc can have a huge impact on how people eat, because you are encouraged more to home cook food in that way, rather than just get a greasy takeaway or eat out, or just get a rubbish supermarket ready meals most people have etc.

This post is not about judging anyone’s lifestyle choices. But I think we should all be concerned about this because there is no point in living longer if it’s spent in illness. And I’m saying this as someone under 30.

What do you think? How can we improve these measures and live a better life in the UK?

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

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

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.

Why would you think that?

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.

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

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.

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 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’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 😂

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Read the methodology more closely. I have linked the report.

This happens a lot on MN - people don't like the findings do they quibble over the methodology.

Still ignoring housing quality.

Not you specifically .

But trying to change cultural attitudes to eating is more difficult than addressing housing stock and chronic neglect of estates.

Limited health care access.

But again, all the other 20 countries have the same level of non SAHMs in them, some a bit higher. And all of the countries have experienced the same cultural shift. Japan, of all the countries has the lowest birth rate and more women who choose to have no children.

She thinks she has a great diet because she only eats once a day. This obviously can't be the case and what she does eat is processed and high in fat. Since we've moved out she rarely cooks from scratch.
Dad was a builder so very physical but used to eat pies and chips for lunch etc. For his last 10 years working he changed to being a site manager and drove from site to site everyday so no longer physical and piled the weight on. He's had a knee replacement and has lung fibrosis.
Mum probably has COPD and has been less mobile since a fall requiring ankle surgery 2 years ago. She also has fatty liver.
I've suggested diet change and exercise. She said dad walks the dog (small so not far) and she does her 'chair exercises' at her social clubs.

Mum used to cook proper meals when we were kids but there was a big shift to convenience food in the early 90's. This was a period of poverty/food and job instability and we relied on cheap freezer foods from discount shops. She was probably very stressed trying to run a house on a shoestring while working 2 jobs and my dad was working abroad. It was a lot and I think her mindset never really changed. People saying 'oh it's cheap to cook a lentil curry' etc just don't seem to get it. I know I'm privileged to be in a position to be able to afford and have the bad witch and time to provide healthy meals for my family. Not everyone can.

Even the US is better than the UK on average??

No,
The article says UK ranks 20th out of 21 countries, with only the US being lower than the UK.

‘The global comparison, based on World Health Organization data, compared the UK to other nations in western Europe, the Nordics, North America and Oceania. It is now ranked 20th out of 21 with only the US seeing its population live for fewer years in good health.’

It is completely unsurprising given how under funded the NHS is and how much US crap we import to eat.

I agree, we have tons of raw sewage in our waterways, dog shit is hanging from the trees. You can’t even go to the beach without encountering literal shit in the water.

Good question. I would start, if I had the power to do so, by holding meetings with the Health Secretary, and whoever is in charge, I would guess several people, who have allowed the food that is available to buy, to be so far removed from what is food in its natural state. I think that would be the Food Standards Agency? We have, over the years, been sold a lie, to the detriment of the health of Society, with regards to the food that is on the selves, of any major supermarket. We were told that there is more to life than being in the kitchen, making home made meals. Adverts advertising the latest food, just take it out the packet, and put in the oven, microwave, and now air fryer, and on it goes. What they did not wish to educate, as Society began to rely on these things, is that the UPFs ever present, would take its toll on the health of the nation. It needs the Government to do something about it, as they allowed the problems to develop in the first place.

@FraZles Not blaming anyone but I have major arthritis- not overweight, good diet, always active. Am I to blame for complete degradation of my joints? I do not think there is anything I could have done to stop it. But I cannot influence speed of NHS treatment- where the preferred treatment option is to wait until the joint completely fails then replace it. That choice is based on UK government decisions.

That’s showing gdp, not gdp per capita. The UK is densely populated, and also has a more unequal wealth distribution than most other western countries.