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?

Not blaming you, no.

There must be a lot of others who have created their situation.

I’m not, but I do wonder why you think housing quality is worse in the uk than the peer countries? I’m a housing professional so am pretty knowledgeable about the industry.

Because the number one thing flagged in the report is poor housing. Black mould killed Awaab Ishak. Heavy pollution killed Ella Kissi Debrah. These are children but many people in the UK live in temporary and substandard housing.

gDp per capita is just another way of measuring wealth. It gives different results to GDP but that doesn’t mean it’s the definitive measure.

It’s also hard to imagine someone calling a country with the 5th largest GDP in the world poor.

Oooh another UK bashing thread. How jolly.

If you look at the stats though they don't eat as much UPFs in general.

The GDP table isn’t wrong, but GDP is the wrong metric to measure wealth per capita.

In which report? I can’t see reference to housing in the health.org report linked or the bbc article?

Yes handy visual

The Health Foundation, which produced the analysis, said there was a significant economic cost to this trend and the findings should act as a watershed moment.
It said poverty, poor housing and lifestyle factors such as obesity were to blame along with the impact of the Covid pandemic.

I think our social activities also dont help .
There is so little to do in winter unlike many other places.

The organisation that released the report have a section on housing on thier website.

They suggest cold and damp (high utility bills) stress from trying to afford very high rents, insecure housing and overcrowding have an impact.

So maybe other places get less damp as thier utilities are less or rents are lower or more secure or less people in a space?

finally! I too am suss of self reported research and even more so when its international and thus you can't even hope for any kind of socio economic baseline. There could be all kinds of reasons why people do or don't self report poor health....different expectations varying from country to country, which I suspect could be media driven, different cultural expectations, the cohort of people who answered......

Yes, it's here

https://www.health.org.uk/evidence-hub/housing

Measuring GDP without considering the number of people and the inequality index is not measuring wealth in any meaningful way. GDP per capita is almost as bad as just looking at GDP alone. GDP itself is a calculation where a country can artificially inflate their nominal GDP through government borrowing of money:

GDP = Consumption + Investment + Government Spending + Net Exports

So we have a perverse situation where the more public debt we take on, the higher we can calculate our GDP to be. We are the nation equivalent of the neighbourhood flashy family who are up to their eyeballs in debt and yet strutting about like they are rich.

The thing is that’s not the number one thing is the report though?

yes damp and mould are problems in poorly maintained (often rented) housing. But it is not common place in the uk. It’s not like significant % of us live with damp and mould in our homes

For example?

there's quite a lot to do around here.

3.8 million homes...

These people you refer to are exactly the people who are facing poor health outcomes. It's a major factor for those living in poverty. It's hard to do the gymnastics to deny or overlook this. The estate is in terrible order.

Look at the machinations the LA went through to try and avoid any reponsibility for the death of Awaab Ishak.

What aspect of housing do you work in? The UK's reputation with poor housing is well known and fairly frequently discussed in economic, health and social welfare circles when comparing countries and talking about structural issues.

The UK has the oldest housing stock in OCED countries. We're near the bottom of the table in terms of floorspace per person. We are at the bottom of the OECD in terms of availability. And have the highest percentage of inadequate homes in Europe.

I agree with people working longer hours or feeling more stressed regarding work - my own mum was a SAHM when I was young and would cook from scratch and buy food from the fishmonger, the butcher and the greengrocer (and no I am not that old!). I often just bung frozen food in the oven, so not as healthy as cooking from scratch. Food is more about convenience and being fed rather than making a meal for enjoyment.

The rise of social media and comparison to others - as a child McDonald's was a birthday treat (remember the parties you could have there?). It wasn't a weekly thing to have a takeaway yet now a lot of families have this as a treat at least once a week and make it known. Other families do it so people have a why can't I mentality. We see other families doing nice things and days out are less about going for walks and the park, and more big days out which are not always that active. More time is spent on phones (guilty) and less time outdoors.

Lack of NHS support for anything 'non urgent' I have been waiting 6 months now for something minor. Dentist I have to pay private as our NHS dentist changed to private and where I live there is no hope of getting an NHS dentist ever again.
This means I don't go for regular check ups as it's too expensive.

Greater choice on things like schools (but also a growing population). For me there was only one primary school where I grew up so no choice of school and you were able to walk to get there. Now there is two.
Where I now live we had the choice of around 8 schools within the town, not all within walking distance meaning greater choice but more people driving instead of walking to the closest.

It's like getting blood from a stone.
Like what? And where are you?

This page is also interesting and talks about economic inactivity and housing issues , particularly reflecting on young people. The rot sets in early. It isn't all about diet and exercise. Mental health also has a significant role

https://www.health.org.uk/reports-and-analysis/analysis/socioeconomic-disadvantage-and-self-reported-health

Thanks, I’ll have a look at the report. I don’t actually feel strongly about the results either way, but will concede I have not looked at the report.

Not getting work will impact mh. Policies that cut jobs are not helping. Many sitting at home over a period of time will decline.