Brits living fewer years in good health as FOUR major risk factors revealed

We are living fewer years in good health according to a damning report into our aging population.

A major report by Age UKhas concluded that an NHS which has been “run down” over the last decade has created “gaps in healthy life expectancy… which shame us as a nation”. It points to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showing that on average we have around two fewer years of “healthy life expectancy” than before the Covid-19 pandemic. It reverses a trend of over a century of growing healthy life expectancy.

The report says there are fewer GPs to care for the growing and aging population and fewer older people can access social care.

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Caroline Abrahams, director at Age UK, said: “This 10th anniversary report, Age UK has produced, paints the picture of a Health and Care system under unprecedented pressure – in some places, at times virtually under siege. The uncomfortable truth though is that at present many older people are not able to get the high-quality healthcare and social care support they need - and they do not have time on their side.”

Latest ONS data for the period 2021 to 2023 showed males in England could expect to spend 61.5 years of their lives in good health and 60.3 years in Wales. For females it was 61.9 years in England and 59.6 years in Wales.

Since the period 2017 to 2019 male healthy life expectancy in England has fallen by 1.7 years and in Wales by 1.1 years. For females, it fell by 1.9 years in England and 2.2 years in Wales.

When it comes to factors we can control, respected thinktank the King’s Fund has highlighted the major determinants of poor health. The four key risk factors are poor diet, physical inactivity, excessive alcohol consumption and smoking.

A study in 2008 tracked people for 11 years and found an individual with all four risk factors had a four-fold risk of dying compared with someone who ate well and was active, and didn’t smoke or drink to excess. They were also more likely to live a greater proportion of their lives in poor health.

Poverty was also a factor as by 2008 the odds of someone with no qualifications having all four risk factors compared to those with the most education had climbed to five-fold. This had increased from a three-fold difference in 2003.

The report comes after the Mirror reported that unpaid carers providing over 35 hours of unpaid care a week have increased by 70%. Experts warn lack of formal social care is driving people to quit their jobs and leave the workforce. Many women are left filling the gaps to look after parents, spouses or their adult children.

The analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows full-time unpaid carers in England have increased from 1.1 million in 2003/04 to 1.9 million in 2023/24. Age UK says health and social care services are over-stretched and unpaid family carers are under intense pressure.

Ms Abrahams said: “Against this context it’s not surprising that satisfaction levels are sharply down and there’s a trend towards more ‘going private’ if they can afford it. Sadly, the result is that inequalities are growing and those who are least advantaged are being left further behind. The starkest evidence of this are gaps in healthy life expectancy the scale of which shame us as a nation.”

Age UK’s tenth anniversary State of Health and Care of Older People report has found the following:

• Those who can afford it are increasingly turning to private healthcare for procedures with long waiting lists such as cataract and knee operations, widening the gap between rich and poor
• State-funded support is now largely the preserve of the poorest older people with the most severe social care needs, leaving others to rely on family and friends or struggle without help if they are of modest means
• The Covid-19 pandemic worsened the general health of older people and increased NHS waiting times
• More than a decade of “chronic underinvestment” in health and social care under the Tories has left the UK short of GPs, hospital beds and social care workers

Labour is on course to slash the NHS waiting list by almost three million appointments this parliament. A projection by the Health Foundation this week showed the Government is rescuing the health service after a decade of soaring waits under the Tories but progress could stall if there were more NHS strikes.

The NHS waiting list in England stood at 7.6 million when Labour came to power in 2024 after rising steadily from 2.5 million since 2010 when the Tories took office. The waiting list fell by 220,000 in the first year of the new Government.

After Labour won power last year it launched the Casey Review of adult social care to tackle the thorny issue of how the country should pay to care for its elderly.

The first phase is expected to be complete by 2026 and will focus on changes that can be made over the medium term within existing resources. The second phase will report by 2028 and will consider “the long-term transformation of adult social care”.

The Government has been criticised for delaying fundamental reform of social care until the next Parliament. Delivering the review’s recommendations may be dependent on Labour winning a second term in power.

A Government spokesperson said they are "supporting care workers to deliver health interventions at home, funding 15,000 additional home adaptations, and shifting from sickness to prevention". They added: "We're also bringing care closer to home with neighbourhood health services - so all people can receive the best possible care in the most appropriate place."