While life expectancy has increased, the extra years are often not spent in good health. Vitality Research Institute says healthy lifestyle choices earlier in life are the key to change

In the UK, life expectancy has grown by more than five years since 1990 and every second person can now expect to reach 84, compared to every fifth person in the 1980s, according to a report from Vitality Research Institute.

However, healthy life expectancy hasn’t kept pace. Currently 7.3 million healthy years of life are lost in the UK each year. On average, 16 per cent of a woman’s life and 13 per cent of a man’s life can now be expected to be spent in poor health.

This is adding to the NHS and social care bills and leading to a loss of productivity in the workforce, especially as largely preventable chronic conditions, such as heart disease are becoming more common.

Wealth is health
Life expectancy between the most deprived and most affluent areas of the country currently differ by as much as 10 years. Health literacy, access to healthcare and issues of cost all play a part.

Eating healthily is challenging on a low-income diet. Research has shown that the most deprived areas of England have five times more fast-food outlets than the least deprived areas.

Wealthspan and healthspan are set to become an increasing problem, as a result of more people having to retire earlier due to poor health, with insufficient funds saved and living longer with poor health.

Healthy choices
While the negative consequences of extended lifespan occur later in life, with the onset of chronic diseases, preventative action needs to happen decades earlier.

With 74 per cent of deaths globally being a result of non-communicable, chronic diseases, this research suggests around 37 per cent of the disease burden could be prevented through healthier lifestyle choices and improved metabolic risk.

Vitality Research Institute advocates a healthy lifestyle: moderate alcohol intake; not smoking; eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day; adhering to the WHO guidelines for exercise and sleeping for seven to nine hours each night.

The report also argues that physical activity should form the core of a preventative healthcare strategy: it brings mental and physical benefits, while also promoting other positive changes in behaviour, including eating more fruit and vegetables, drinking less alcohol and improved sleep.

Calls for preventative focus
Although the report urges individuals to take responsibility for their own health, it also calls for employers and the government to support them. Since 2014, the UK has seen a reduction in spend, in real terms, on prevention. Existing healthcare strategies have been effective in reducing the severe consequences of disease, but less effective in preventing disease in the first place.

As an example of how this plays out, between 2000 and 2019 the number of years of life lost to cancer decreased by 15 per cent, but the number of years lived with cancer increased by 21 per cent.