Life expectancy gap between rich and poor is widening
Owen Bowcott
guardian.co.uk
Friday 3 July 2009
The gap in life expectancy between the prosperous middle classes and those in the most deprived homes is widening sharply, latest health figures show.
The emerging pattern suggests that the well-off are adopting healthier lifestyles while the poor are still drinking and smoking and cannot afford to change diets.
Men in Blackpool now live on average up to 73.2 years, 10.5 years fewer than their counterparts in Kensington and Chelsea. Women in Hartlepool have the lowest female life expectancy at 78.1 years, around 9.6 years less than in the central London borough.
While life expectancy rates are increasing overall, they appear to be rising much faster for the affluent than for those who struggle to make ends meet, according to the latest district-by-district NHS health profiles, published this week.
Over a three-year period – from 2004-06 to 2005-07 – the figures reveal that the gap between local authorities at opposite ends of the health spectrum grew by 0.4 years for men and 0.8 years for women.
Average male life expectancy in England has now risen to 77.7 years, compared with 77.3 years three years ago; average female life expectancy has risen to 81.8 years from 81.6 years. The minister for public health, Gillian Merron, welcomed the figures: "The health of the nation is improving ... It is good to see that people can expect to live longer, that early deaths from heart disease, cancer and smoking-related diseases are decreasing.
"But people living in some areas are still healthier than those living in other areas, which is unacceptable. The NHS and local authorities need to work with this published information to identify what the issues are in their area and take action for the sake of the health of their local population."
Alan Walker, professor of social policy and social gerontology at the University of Sheffield, said: "Messages about wellbeing and healthy lifestyles penetrate more rapidly into the middle-class professional households than they do into working-class homes and households on benefits.
"It's easier on a comfortable income to make those lifestyle choices. When you are poor you simply can't choose what you eat. Try to tell a hard-pressed mother to stop smoking – she may say thats it's the only thing that gets her through the day.
"It's much easier for those on higher incomes. The health inequality statistics are a mirror of other inequalities. Those differences are getting wider. It's hard cash, like child benefits, that is going to make a difference."
Life expectancy has been increasing for at least the past 180 years – since records in the UK began. It is increasing, on average, at the rate of one month every six years.
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Thing is ... it isn't in the US.
Just over there ... you know, those places where they have universal and free health care!
Obamanation
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