Britons have lowest healthy lifespan in Western Europe

THE UK has the lowest healthy life expectancy in Western Europe, and widespread obesity is “fuelling” Covid deaths, according to a study published in The Lancet.

Britons can expect just 68.9 healthy years of life, according to the latest findings in the Global Burden of Disease study, which analyses illness and risk factors in 204 countries and territories around the world.

Healthy life expectancy has risen more slowly in Britain than elsewhere in Western Europe, the study showed, in part due to failures to tackle chronic public health problems, such as obesity, over the last three decades. Many of these problems are also risk factors for serious illness and death from Covid-19.

That is also the case globally, researchers said, leading to a “perfect storm” for the pandemic.

Prof John Newton, director of health improvement at Public Health England and a member of the Global Burden of Disease Scientific Council, told The

Daily Telegraph there was “no doubt” obesity had contributed to the UK’S high Covid death toll, but there were other factors too. “It remains unclear why there were differences between countries in mortality rates but obesity is certainly one factor,” he added.

The study found that non-communicable diseases (NCDS) – diseases that are not passed on from person-to-person – now make up 88 per cent of the overall disease burden in the UK.

The five leading causes of death from NCDS i n 2019 were heart disease ( 93,400 deaths), stroke ( 50,600), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (43,900), lung cancer (42,800) and Alzheimer’s and other dementias (32,400).

In total, 43,254 people have died of Covid-19 in the UK this year. Prof Christopher Murray, of the University of Washington, in the US, said the risk factors for many NCDS were “preventable and treatable”, adding: “Tackling them will bring huge benefits. We are failing to change unhealthy behaviours, particularly those related to diet, caloric intake, and physical activity, in part due to inadequate policy attention and funding for public health and behavioural research.”

Prof Newton said Covid- 19 had shown the importance of tackling unhealthy behaviours.