Heart disease most likely illness to force people to leave their job

HEART disease is the illness most likely to force sufferers out of work, a report shows.

The study by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that almost one in three of those who are “economically inactive” has a heart or circulatory problem.

It comes as figures from the Office of National Statistics show a record 2.8 million people in the UK are on longterm sick leave, up from two million in 2019.

The IPPR research found that those with heart problems have a 22 per cent chance of leaving work – more than three times that of healthy people.

Among those with cancer, the figure is 16 per cent and for those with mental health problems it is 14 per cent.

Experts said the trends were particularly marked among those over the age of 50, who are the focus of government efforts to get people back into work.

Pilot schemes will attempt to tackle long-term sickness, with referrals to running and gardening clubs, to improve health in mid-life.

The think tank today calls on the Government to bring in policies to change diet habits, including extra taxes on all high fat and high salt products to subsidise healthier food options.

Both the Government and the Labour opposition have ruled out the introduction of such policies, when families are struggling with the cost of living crisis.

It follows warnings of a rise in heart deaths since the pandemic, with about 500 more deaths a week amid struggles to access NHS care and delays for ambulances. GPS have been told to consider prescribing statins to anyone who seeks them under draft guidance.

The IPPR report says that even before the pandemic, one in 20 deaths could have been prevented if the UK had maintained even half the rate of progress it had managed tackling heart disease. This would have meant about 33,000 lives saved in 2019.

Chris Thomas, head of IPPR’S Commission on Health and Prosperity, said: “After great strides in tackling cardiovascular disease in the 20th century, the UK is now stalling, if not reversing. This is not just costing lives, but also livelihoods.

“The Government has to get on to the front foot and deliver proactive policies. Both human lives and economic prosperity depend on it.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said the Government had “already taken significant action to reduce cardiovascular disease and its causes” and it was investing £17million in “an innovative new digital NHS Health Check, expected to deliver an additional one million health checks in its first four years and £10million into rolling out a pilot for workplace cardiovascular disease checks in 2024”.

‘After great strides in tackling heart disease... the UK is now stalling’