The nation’s ‘stock of health’ is getting worse. That is the conclusion of the Office for National Statistic’s (ONS) most recent health index, which looks at 56 indicators across health outcomes, health-related behaviours and the wider social and economic drivers of health.
Not only that, but the ONS found enormous variation across the country, with physical health disparities especially acute depending on region. This should not be surprising as the gap in healthy life expectancy – the number of years lived in good health – between more and less deprived areas has consistently been twice as large as the gap in the numbers of years lived.
There is good news buried within these figures. The reason for the gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy is because of the relative success in reducing mortality compared to preventing disease onset or preventing the impact of diseases on people’s day-to-day health.
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