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?

@Carla786 but will that offset financial stress? They aren’t having dc so that might help!

Poor diet, glorification of being overweight, little exercise and a non-existent health service … its not a surprise!

This!!

Some condition are already hitting at younger ages - bowel cancer is one and diets often blamed but recent research shown there may be a change in some E. coli strains producing toxins cause it and that's looks like it may be behind the increase in under 50s bowel cancer.

@AprilMizzel I think it’s much more complicated than just diet.

It might...some will probably have DC in the end. I'm Gen Z and plan to have 2. Most of my friends want kids, too. Improvement of economy would probably mean some people consider it more - this tough spot surely can't last forever..

Oh and don’t forget the many health problems coming down the line from children being brought up in temporary accommodations (hotel rooms, b&bs..)

I live in Germany where we have the highest expenditure on health care in the EU and we are only one notch higher than the UK.

I think physical environment has a bigger impact than we sometimes factor in. Poor air quality. Poor water quality. Less green spaces encouraging movement, play, and the ability to destress and wind down for free. Not enough pavements for road safe walking, and cycle safe roads for free mobility, and encouraging less car usage. Poor quality social housing that is cold, damp, poorly ventilated and mouldy.

Stressful lives, sometimes very much so.
Long working hours.
Women doing the double shift.
Lack of outdoor amenities eg lack of swimmers pools.
England’s huge cities lacking outdoor space.
Living longer (but not healthier)

A tradition of cheaper processed food, especially from the industrial revolution and post – war. Even though now our supermarkets stock fantastic food, often better than anything you find on the continent!

The weather
Philistinism
Laziness (most of us can be guilty of that)
Poor housing, people squashed together.
A fair amount of general poverty. Living standards have actually fallen since the early 2000s.

I asked the same thing because the other countries doing badly are NL, Canada, Germany, US.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5522305-people-in-uk-spend-fewer-years-in-good-health-than-a-decade-ago-study-finds?reply=151947667&utm_campaign=reply&utm_medium=share

NHS on its knees, especially for anything to do with mental health, an obesogenic environment coupled with a total lack of understanding on what constitutes a good diet, poor quality housing, huge income and cost disparities, the pandemic, many people do not have access to places to exercise.

I’m in a city and really the parks are full of people running. It’s probably easier to do a running commute too.

Obesity
1980s: 7%
1990s: 15%.
2000s: 25%

2022/2024, 29%

Inequality and poor nutrition are major drivers. Not just the high fat, high salt, high UPF aspect but also prenatal nutrition, low breastfeeding rates, poor infant nutrition and abysmal child nutrition. This is down, in part, to the UK's recovery from WWII which, even as class barriers and inequality dropped meant Britain struggled to a much greater extent as other OECD countries recovered. And it had a lasting impact on UK food culture across the board, increasing acceptance of cheap, low quality processed foods. But then the resurgence of inequality saw the gains in food quality that have been made since the 80s entirely miss the least well off.

We have massive cultural issues from the last 40 years (ingrained over the preceding centuries) as gains that could have improved the long term quality of life were spunked up the wall on short term hedonism. This stemmed in large part from Thatcher's policies in the 80s, which were then cemented into place by Blair's glossy pretenses at equality (which mainly just papered over massive structural inequality by borrowing from the future).

We've failed to invest in the NHS adequately and so have lots of people whose health could be better and require less investment at the tail end of life now needing significant care. And we seem to baulk at analysis that would bring more fairness or economic utility to how its money is spent.

I think a lot of it is lifestyle. If I look back to my childhood in the 60s/70s fewer people had cars so children walked everywhere. My mum cooked meals from scratch as well as working full time, there wasn't the processed convenient food that you get now or takeaways.

We played out all the time, no computers, mobile phones, ipads etc.

I think lifestyles today are more sedentary and it's so easy to order a takeaway to be delivered.

I read the article. I cant quite grasp if it means people born now can only expect to be healthy until 61 or thats currently when people hit being unhealthy and whether we expect more of this trend or it will change.
So people around 45 to 60 - why are they more obese, poor and isolated than thier parents i guess is what we mean and how to make sure young people dont end up like this cohort?

How is it too simplistic?

I personally think a lot of people are just shit at prioritising and go for whatever is instantly gratifying instead of looking at the bigger picture.

@Carla786 we have been in the tough spot since the 08 crash, growth has never recovered. An ageing population makes future growth very difficult.

Fertility rates are the lowest on record I believe, it’s unlikely there will be a big shift.

Do many poor people not even have a fridge or cooker? This is disgusting.

I think most people do like chicken: it's after all a popular food in UPFs...vegetables probably more problematic.

People can Google advice in cooking safely and healthy eating. Or go to a charity or food bank for advice. It's a bad situation but there are options. Also go to library if you can : we need more of those for people.

Lifestyles are sedentary through choice, though.

Yes, it's easier to order a takeaway and watch Love Island than it is to cook dinner and do a workout video but people need to take responsibility for that choice and not act like they're helpless.

I agree with a lot of this. But lots of other European countries were invaded and suffered terribly in war. Poland,,where my grandad came from, suffered terribly under USSR after the way. Yet now their economy is doing well. I agree the war had a big impact but there must be other key factors.

The UK's relationship with alcohol probably doesn't help. Binge drinking is very dangerous for health

I've just spent the day in Weston Super Mare.
People out getting sunburned, drinking outside pubs, the smell of weed everywhere, almost everyone overweight - many of them hugely so, vaping, smoking, energy drinks, fish and chips, donuts.

No level of NHS provision can undo a lifetime of bad choices.

@marsbarslice people are pushed for time though. I’m pushed for time!

You can think it’s just because people want instant gratification but as I said I don’t agree.