Live poor die young

Richer people can expect to live nearly 10 years longer than their poorer peers

THERE were huge gaps in life expectancy between rich and poor even before the pandemic now coronavirus is widening these health inequalities. New figures from the Office for National Statistics have revealed that the richest people in England and Wales were already likely to live nearly a decade longer than the poorest before Covid-19 hit.

For males born in England between 2017 and 2019, those living in the most deprived areas could expect to die 9.4 years sooner than those in the least deprived areas.

For females, those living in the poorest areas in England could expect to die 7.6 years before those in the most well-off areas.

Similarly, in Wales boys born in the most affluent areas between 2017 and 2019 could expect to live 8.9 years longer than those born in the poorest, and girls 7.4 years longer.

Meanwhile, coronavirus has not been the great leveller that some people claimed it would be with data on deaths revealing that we’re not all in this together.

Separate figures from the ONS have shown that people living in the poorest parts of England and Wales have been twice as likely to die from Covid-19 as those in the richest.

There are several factors behind this. Firstly, people in poorer areas are more likely to get a Covid-19 infection in the first place.

They are more likely to be key workers - with jobs such as care assistants, shop assistants, building workers, bus drivers, and delivery drivers often low paid - which means they’re less likely to be able to work from home.

They are also more likely to have to rely on public transport, as well as being more likely to have poor internet connections and not be

able to afford home delivery services.

Deprived areas also tend to have higher population densities than richer areas, which makes maintaining social distancing more difficult.

For all of these reasons, people in poorer areas are more likely to come into contact with infected people than their peers in richer areas.

Secondly, people in poor areas who have a Covid-19 infection are more likely to die from it.

There is a higher risk of severe disease and death from a Covid-19 infection if you have an underlying health condition such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and cancer.

People in deprived areas are more likely to suffer from these particular underlying health conditions than people in richer areas, for a range of reasons, such as greater pollution levels and greater stress levels.

Prof Dave Gordon, director of the Bristol Poverty Institute and director of the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research, University of Bristol, said: “It is very disappointing but not surprising that more people are dying of

Covid-19 infections in deprived areas.

“However, what is a surprise is that the inequality in death rates between richer and poorer areas from Covid-19 are so much greater than deaths from other causes.

“So far the Public Health response to the pandemic has not targeted or tried to shelter people living in deprived areas – this is clearly needed given these statistics.”