Healthy life expectancy falls in the UK – and the decline is worse among women |
Healthy life expectancy in the UK – the years we can expect to live in good health – has fallen by more than two years over the past decade, according to a new Health Foundation analysis published.
The decline has been larger for women than for men – a finding the report says raises “concerns about the worsening trend of women’s health”. Of 21 high-income countries, the UK has fallen from 14th to 20th on this measure over the same period; only the US now ranks lower.
The aggregate matters, but so does the distribution. The gap in healthy life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas of England is now 20.3 years for women.
A girl born today in Hartlepool can expect to live just 51.2 years of good health; in Richmond-upon-Thames, 70.3. Translate that into time spent unwell and women in the poorest areas can expect roughly three decades of life in poor health, against around 13 years for the most affluent. In Wales, female healthy life expectancy fell by 3.7 years over the decade alone.
Why women in particular?
Men in deprived areas suffer too, but not in the same way and not for the same reasons.........