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?

Probably, and yet there's another thread running at the moment filled with people who don't think they need to supplement Vitamin D...

I think it's related to Radon & UPF.

This is very true. I am a dog owner and this winter just gone was an absolute SLOG. Bare minimum exercise for all of us, to avoid growing gills. I live in a gorgeous part of the world with miles of open moorland to explore. Don't go anywhere near it for 7 months of the year as it just sucks your wellies off.

People expect the NHS to cover every single thing related to their health. So they never pursue things themselves because they ‘shouldn’t have to’ pay. As such people do not see a physio, dietitian, movement specialist, podiatrist etc and they let their health and pain and comorbidities compound into ill health which medicine then cannot fix. Combined with doing no exercise, stress, lack of access to treatment due to waiting lists and poverty you have a massive unhealthy population.

Our healthcare system is built around treating heath conditions rather than identifying issues early and stopping them from becoming a long term problem. We put sticking plasters on things without identifying the root cause.

Getting older is inevitable, but there’s a lot people can do to help themselves. Staying strong and active into old age should be a priority. The younger generation appears to be turning the tide in that respect. It will be interesting to see how they fare their old age.

It's an interesting (and depressing) study. I live in a wealthy area of London and everyone I know in their 50s, 60s, 70s are going strong. My parents, in their late 80s still travel, do lots of cultural stuff, have an active social life and, though retired, are still involved with their professions on some level.

In my volunteer work, though, I come across a lot of people who are not nearly so lucky. I agree with the earlier assessments about poor quality housing, inadequate nutrition and social isolation. I also think that the NHS, while fabulous at some things, is absolutely shameful about looking ahead/preventative care. I agree with the PP who said we don't, as a society, look at the bigger picture, 20 year plans.

It would be really interesting to know the economics of more preventative care - necessary breast reductions, bunion surgery, dental care. I'm almost certain that a person who needs any of those things and doesn't get it will cost the system more across their lifetime than they would if we footed the cost up front.

OP, I have missed out reading a lot of posts but you missed out levels of poverty and the poverty gap as the biggest single contributor. Until we sort out poverty linked life expectancy we are stuffed. The article does indeed point this out.

It's the life expectancy and the HLA of people in areas such as Blackpool with low wage economies, high smoking and drink related health issues, gig economy and shift working workforces and high unemployment that are of concern. The BBC 's yoga picture made me laugh. Do they think a bit of yoga will help the zero hours contract warehouse workers in Blackpool?

And yet, governments want people to work longer.

Poverty. The answer is always poverty.

Only the US does worse than us of the 21 countries in the study and we all know about their huge inequalities and their horrifically divisive healthcare system.

That requires:
Knowing how to cook this kind of stuff.
Buying and using the stuff in time - which requires forward planning. If you are working random shifts at your employer's whim, that broccoli may go off in the fridge before you have the energy to cook it in a meal.

A loaf of Asda white bread is 74p and a tub of marge is 95p. That might be breakfast for a week for a family, but is utter crap.
A frozen pizza is 1.65 and two garlic bread loaves 85p. All carbs and fat, but it will fill the family and be quick and easy, a complete meal in two packets, no need to peel and chop veg, or handle multiple pans and multiple ingredients with fiddly timings to get it all cooked at the same time.

Don't under-estimate the effects of depression and exhaustion.

The lack of access to good healthcare really doesn't help
We do have excellent healthcare in the UK. The reason why access is a major issue is because of the sheer number of unhealthy people pass 60 years old.

Why so many years unhealthy? Because we are a lazy society which values immediate gratification over delayed benefits.

I don’t think it is necessarily the school’s job to teach cooking and nutrition. There just aren’t enough hours in the day and will it make a difference? I think the factors that prevent a child from learning healthy eating is beyond a 30min lesson per week. Engagement from parents, time, money etc are factors. When you are tired and worked a long day, it is much much easier to stick a pizza in the oven for ten minutes than cook from scratch. Batch cooking in advance requires you to have enough money to buy multiple days worth of food in one go, time to cook it and space to store it.

One things that may help is reduce the ease of access to unhealthy foods, particularly for children e.g buying sweets, pastries, milkshakes etc on the way to from school.

A lot of eating is done not because of hunger but temptation. I see it in my own children when they ask for a snack and if I suggest fruit it seems not to be the right answer.

I think the fractured nature of society/households/family is a big part of it.

In the UK, I get the feeling that kids move away to more distant universities in larger numbers than some other countries where they either don't go to Uni (better local alternative further education options) or go to a more local uni meaning they can continue to live at home.

Then, we come to decent jobs, and the centralisation of so many jobs in London and the immediate vicinity in the South East meaning so many people having to leave their home towns to get a decent job, especially if they live in rural areas or the regions.

It leaves entire communities run down, with elderly people having few or no close relatives, so no one to care for them or advocate for them, fewer local amenities, etc.

Personally, I think we need a massive drive to rejuvenate all the rural areas and regions and finally start to create a movement away from London (and not just to another big city like Manchester or Birmingham). We need to inject life back into the forgotten towns and cities and thus in turn, improve facilities and amenities like parks, recreation, hospitals etc.

No. It’s as bad in America. 🤷‍♀️

OK, but you have had 1) the education to not poison yourself with the chicken, 2) the money to house yourself somewhere with both a fridge and a cooker that allows you to store the food safely and cook it appropriately 3) the opportunity to develop a palate that finds that sort of food acceptable 4) the time to cook it 5) the energy to plan it 6) the financial wherewithal to buy e.g. any spices which are cheap per serving, but expensive in the initial outlay when finances are very tight. I too have all of those things, with the possible exception of the energy for planning, which is thin on the ground with two FT parents, me with a "big job" two school aged kids with complexities, and a lot of work related travel. I'm not having a go at you. But we are both privileged, and a failure to recognise that leaves us with the same lack of society level solutions we already have, and the top 0.1% cashing in on the ways they are structuring society to wreck our health and wellbeing, while the rest of us point fingers at each other.

We are a bit as a whole, it takes effort to eat well and exercise. Add food types which can be addictive and dc picking up bad habits.

On a thread someone mentioned 20 odd year olds going to the gym and eating well, I can see that with dc and friends but not sure how wide ranging that is.

This article has a link to the report:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/apr/27/people-in-uk-spend-fewer-years-in-good-health-than-a-decade-ago-study-finds

The curious thing is that income inequality affects their health of those who are well off as well as those who are not well off.

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2026/01/28/inequality-and-health-lost-in-the-mists-of-time-social-stress-mortality-life-expectancy/

Exactly. And lots of people seem to think they can just rock up to the doctors and get help without doing anything themselves.

This will go down like a sack of shit on here, but the uproar around WLI's not being available to everyone on the NHS is a key sign of how lazy some of us are.

People do though. Most of the people I know are early middle-aged working parents so have plenty of demands on their time but manage to run before work/swim etc

They (we) are also predominantly middle-class so have the time/WFH jobs/cash for gym memberships etc. So privilege plays a big part.

DH and I are also supportive of allowing each other time to pursue hobbies/exercise

I agree - the nhs does a lot of preventative work, a free vaccination programme being one. However, it can’t stop people picking up a cigarette, vaping, making repetitive bad health choices, not exercising, drinking excessively etc.

Gym membership is too expensive and not convenient (so would not be used) but we do workouts that are on YouTube

Exactly. People seem to be massively against taking responsibility for their own health, lives and well-being - they want someone/something else to fix it all for them.

And yet people manage it. It's a false eonomy to not priortise your health. Small changes in life style habits can help fit more exercise in etc

Yes but what demographic are they in?

People are definitely NOT LAZY. They’re either in poverty or working long hours and/or 2 or 3 jobs to keep afloat.

LONGEST WORKING HOURS IN EUROPE FFS

And yet lots of people manage it just fine.

Being a "mum, wife and daughter" and working a full-time job doesn't stop you from getting off your backside and going for a walk.