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?

mothers generally were SAHMs, so kids had fresh meals prepared,

• this is true, but I think it's good that more women are able to pursue a career now. There should be the choice and ability to have a one wage family,,but we also have women who want to work...and if working full time, or part time, there are ways to cook healthily - there needs to be more stiff restricting UPFs too.

Singles who work full time also need to cook healthily.

Poor housing is mentioned at least once in the report. You can't eat healthily or exercise your way out of poor housing and all its consequences.

I had home economics, but it didn't teach me to cook much.

You're nitpicking the poster's choices though. The poster's son is doing something active, healthy, outdoors and sociable. The poster is exercising outdoors too. They are both already making healthy choices.

The necessity is exercise. They are both doing it.
The preference is cricket/exercise in park. What's wrong with that?

Your family did it one way. This family is doing it another.
I don't know why your way is better.

Isn't after school club an organised activity?

But they might do that as well

I think the poster was saying instead of just sitting in the car waiting she (think it was his mum) was using that hour (or whatever) doing some exercise of her own, not being sedate. That is a choice she was making as an adult and perhaps if more people incorporated bits of exercise into their busy lives when opportunity presented itself the UK might not be at the bottom of this list.

Well that’s how I read it.

I think the weather is part of it. I was in Torremolinos last winter, it was warm and sunny and there were elderly people out walking, and cycling, chatting outdoors, swimming in the sea. A different world

Eating chicken nuggets sometimes isn't the cause of poor health.

Again, though, health was much better in the past with same weather.

And by that logic the unhealthiest countries would be the coldest and wettest ones : are they?

It rained in the UK every single day of this year until 17th February. That, paired with the dark and cold doesn’t make it very appealing. It has been nice the last few days.

it is just one factor, lots of others referred to in this thread. I don’t think they’re excuses. We are an active family but I can appreciate that we do have to make it happen and are lucky to be able to do that.

I had home ec too and we weren't allowed to turn the cookers on 😅 The only thing we made was some apple coleslaw thing. It was nice but not very helpful in terms of education!

Also my kids have a dedicated paediatrician who I can WhatsApp and can always see my kids thay day. She sees my children for an annual check up in addition to any medical emergencies. If need to see my GP he has drop-in hours and I just rock up and he sees me. There are also lots of dedicated specialists in the public system, so you get referred quite early on. From the age of 6, you need an annual heart check in order to participate in sport/attend a gym. In pregnancy I had a million checks and the doctor did not like me gaining too much weight; in fact I was put on a diet towards the end.

There is a very competitive private sector so I can visit any type of medical specialist either out of pocket or through insurance.

Not everyone loves the system here but I have never not been able to see a doctor, have to beg for antibiotics or felt like I was being kicked out of hospital to free up a bed, which friends at home have complained about.

Here the doctors can be quite OTT and I do tend to get a second opinion from a private doctor in the UK if I am unsure about an ongoing medical issue. Its always very insightful.

So the medical system is full of preventative measures, doctors in both the public amd private spheres are easy to access, in my experience.

Sorry, I know in your post you listed that as one of many factors.
Re weather : I get February was miserable but that was winter. I don't think any country escapes winter entirely.

I'm in my sixties and live at the British seaside.
There are year round walking groups, sports teams and a sea swimming club here all absolutely bursting with pensioners.
Every single day at high tide the town swarms with older folk walking or cycling to the beach to swim 365 days a year.

There are a lot more people on the beach in summer, but it's busy all year round.
If people want to exercise they do so whatever the weather.

Most towns and cities have sports centres where you can swim and exercise out of the weather all year round.

No - Scandinavian countries have it colder and wetter but their outcomes are better because of their basic level of social responsibility being higher. Poorer parts of society in the UK have less money, often time, and definitely education - even in their traditions - to maximise their health.

I am finding it interesting that the report highlights poverty, poor housing and obesity but a lot of the conversation is about obesity. I guess people feel this is the easiest to address, but you need to address it for poor people in poor housing specifically.

also i wondering how much upfs there were 50/60 years ago - it cant just be childhood diet but what we did in adult life.

I don’t know that there’s generally ever been a culture of social cooking in the UK - of course some people do but I always imagine eg the Italians having long home cooked meals with the whole family whereas it’s more common in the UK to eat and go.!

I love ultra processed corn based snacks I know they are worse than pointless.

I also love cold oranges from the fridge

So I don’t buy multipacks of monster munch (very often)
but do buy oranges
5 oranges are half the price of 6 small packets of monster munch

If you make small tweaks at the till they add up to bigger differences at home

It’s not always about money, or education or time it’s the choices people make.

Our teens can search high and low the only “treat” we have in is one sharing bag of skittles that I bought for one of them to share for something - they both know it’s sharing - they won’t open it without asking

If it’s not on the house it’s not here to be consumed

They can have an orange if they won’t last until dinner time!

I agree with @KeyleftinCar . I need both knees replaced- if anything I was too active. However the waiting time keeps going up- meaning that my chance of a good recovery goes down as my legs get worse and after the first one mobilization is hindered by not having a good leg to stand on

I also don’t think that going to the pub necessarily means a higher alcohol intake - often it can be less - a pint or two sipped through the evening whilst chatting with friends as opposed to sitting on the sofa with a bottle of cheap supermarket wine / whisky by your side.

What generations were mainly SAHMs? My grandmother (silent generation) and mother (baby boom) both worked and I remember at school there didn’t seem to be many SAHM overall.

Everyone take responsibility for themselves: eat well, daily exercise, avoid alchohol, good nights sleep, get out into nature.

Simples.

But some other cold, wet countries do better. As in pp due to social responsibility and healthier traditions.

Maybe we’re just more likely to use weather as another excuse.

I noticed the same when I travelled through Spain with my daughter. She spent some time in Spain while studying medicine and reckons their sociability has a very positive effect on their health

Health care and education are not good in the UK. They are free, but it's not the same thing. Generations not taught to cook or take care of their health then looked after poorly in old age.

If it could be that getting out exercising doesn’t have that much impact on the state of your health in the final years of your life?