DIABETES TIMEBOMB
5m to get deadly disease
BRITAIN is facing a public health timebomb with rocketing rates of dementia, diabetes and a rapidly ageing population piling unprecedented pressure on overstretched services, a report warns today.
The nation’s pulse has been taken to provide a snapshot of how healthy we are.
And although we are living longer, it does not make good reading.
Public health officials fear a crisis looms, with projections suggesting there will be more than two million people aged 85 or over by 2031, placing huge strain on the social care system. The new data provides a snapshot of health in England but the situation is broadly similar across the UK as services wake up to the consequences of ill health.
Dementia and Alzheimer’s are already the leading cause of death in women but by 2020 could overtake heart disease as the leading cause of death in men, the health profile by reveals.
It estimates the number of people struck down with Type 2 diabetes, a life-threatening but preventable disease linked to obesity and unhealthy living, is expected to rocket by one million to five million by 2035.
Millions of us are now living with Public Health England chronic lower back and neck pain, the two leading causes of ill health for men and women, while almost a fifth aged between 16 and 64 have at least one common mental health problem, like depression or anxiety.
Life expectancy is now 79.6 for men and 83.2 for women.
But in the richest areas people enjoy 19 more years in good health than those in the poorest.
Dr Ian Campbell, an NHS GP in Nottingham for more than 30 years, said: “The writing has been on the wall for years.
“Decades of worsening socio-economic inequality, unfettered access to unhealthy dietary and exercise choices and increasing use of alcohol – at a time when we are actually living longer – has led to unprecedented demand on health services.
“We might live longer but we live with multiple medical problems, each with their own complexity and each demanding more from already limited NHS resources. Something has to give.”
Professor John Newton, director of health improvement at PHE, warned: “The NHS needs to respond more quickly than at any time in its history and focus on preventing as well as treating the conditions which are causing the greatest disease burden.”
DIABETES
THE number of people struck down with diabetes will increase by one million to five million by 2035.
Most will develop Type 2, a deadly but preventable disease which is brought on by chronically unhealthy lifestyles, obesity and sugar.
Twelve million people are at risk of developing Type 2 today.
Diabetes now costs more than £10billion a year to treat – 10 per cent of the entire NHS budget.
The number of children now being treated for Type 2, which is normally only seen in adults, has rocketed 40 per cent in four years.
A decade ago no child in Britain had the disease, but figures from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health show 715 people under the age of 25 received care for Type 2 in England and Wales, of which 78.6 per cent were also obese.
The figures for 2016/17 are an increase of 41 per cent on the 507 cases from 2013/14.
More than two-thirds of men and almost six in 10 women are overweight or obese.
Around 160,000 people die from heart and circulatory disease each year. There are now thought to seven million people in England living with cardiovascular disease, which costs the NHS £9billion a year.
One in four adults has high blood pressure, but a further 5.6 million are living with the killer condition undiagnosed.
DEMENTIA
DEMENTIA and Alzheimer’s, combined, could be Britain’s biggest killers by 2020 overtaking heart disease as the leading cause of death in men as it already is in women.
There are now 850,000 people living with dementia in the UK, 500,000 of which have Alzheimer’s.
About 10 per cent of those over the age of 65 and one in three of those over 85 already have the condition. And by 2050 two million people will be living with dementia.
As the Daily Express reported yesterday, world leading scientists at the Dementia Research Institute at University College London and five universities across Britain are working to create the first effective therapy against the biggest health threat of our time.
Sally Copley, of Alzheimer’s Society, said: “We have stressed for a long time that dementia was set to be the 21st century’s biggest killer.
“What makes this more sobering is that it is the only leading cause of death that we can’t cure, prevent or even slow down.
“We need to wake up to the fact that not only will more people be dying from this condition, but far more will be living with dementia.
“They will all need quality social care from trained professionals that doesn’t drain their life savings and force them to sell their homes.”
WOMEN
WOMEN’S health is poor compared to the rest of Europe. Britain ranks 18th out of 28 EU member states for female premature death with men marginally better at 10th.
For women the burden of cardiovascular disease – measured by the effect it has on life span – is the ninth lowest in the EU, much lower than the average, and 49 per cent higher than France which had the lowest.
For cancer the UK ranks 23, with the burden of premature death much higher than the EU average and 42 per cent higher than Spain, which had the lowest. In men the burden of cardiovascular disease sees the UK ranked 10th lowest, significantly lower than the EU average. For cancer the UK ranks eighth with the burden significantly lower than the EU average but 31 per cent higher than Finland, the country with the lowest.
British women ranked lower than men across the EU for a wide range of conditions with the greatest difference seen in cancer. Countries that perform best include Luxembourg, Sweden, Spain and Italy.
Around 360,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with cancer each year while one in seven men and one in 12 women die from coronary heart disease.
Breast cancer survival has doubled in the past 40 years with nine in 10 women surviving the disease for five years or more. However, it still claims the lives of 11,400 each year in the UK.
BACK PAIN
ONE in five people consults his or her GP about a musculoskeletal problem every year – with millions left in agony from lower back and neck pain.
Conditions affect the body’s joints, bones, muscles, nerves, ligaments and tendons, and include crippling autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
In 2016 they accounted for 22.1 per cent of the total burden of ill health in England.
Analysis suggests the proportion of people reporting a long-term problem fell from 17.2 per cent in 2014/15 to 16.5 per cent in 2016/17.
But health chiefs cannot say whether this was a genuine reduction in prevalence, or simply fewer patients reporting their conditions to medics. Conditions such as osteoarthritis, caused by wear and tear on the joints, become more common with age.
In total 42 per cent of patients presenting with symptoms were aged 85 or over. The conditions affect slightly more women than men.
If they become chronic, or long term, musculoskeletal complaints are recognised as significantly decreasing quality of life.
They are also associated with several other debilitating health problems including diabetes, anxiety and depression and obesity.
About 30 per cent of people with any long-term musculoskeletal complaint suffer from poorer mental health as a result, which in turn can aggravate hard-to-treat conditions like chronic pain.
LIVING LONGER
IN 2017 the number of people aged 85 or over in England – 1.35million – was three times greater than it was in 1971. By 2023, that figure is set to reach 1.54million and in 2031 it could top 2.01million.
This is significant as the likelihood of developing chronic conditions requiring round-the-clock care increases with age, with dementia doubling in prevalence every five years above the age of 65.
Life expectancy at birth is now 79.6 years for men and 83.2 years for women, but since 2011 the rate of increase in life expectancy has slowed for both sexes.
Men can expect to live 63.3 years in good health and women 63.9. Between 2014 and 2016 men lived 16.2 years in poor health and women 19.3 years.
In 2016 the most common cause of death for men was heart disease, accounting for 13.6 per cent of all deaths. For women it was dementia and Alzheimer’s – 15.8 per cent of all deaths.
Reduced improvements in heart disease death rates together with a rise in mortality from dementia, made the biggest contribution to a fall in the rate of improvement in life expectancy since 2011.