New research shows death rates among under-50s have worsened in the UK in recent years as a result of drugs, suicide and violence.
Published today (Tuesday 20th May), new research from the Health Foundation shows the UK is becoming ‘the sick person of the wealthy world’ as a result of more people dying from violence, drugs and suicide.
Members of the Health Foundation commissioned experts from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine to undertake the international research, which included 22 high-income countries and examined death rates and their causes.
According to the findings, the UK is home to some of the highest mortality rates which are especially evident among people of working age – aged 25 to 49. Deaths among women that age increased by 46% and among men by 31% between 1990 and 2023.
‘This report is a health check we can’t afford to ignore – and the diagnosis is grim,’ Jennifer Dixon, chief executive of the Health Foundation said. ‘The UK is becoming the sick person of the wealthy world, especially for people of working age. While other nations moved forward, we stalled – and in some areas slipped badly behind.’
Jennifer outlined that the period during the 2010s was a particular cause for concern as this is when improvement in UK death rates majorly slowed. Researchers have claimed that the austerity policies which were introduced just after the great recession were a significant factor.
What’s more, another bleak finding from the research shows the rise in drug-related deaths has been so drastic that the rate of them occurring in the UK was three-times higher in 2019 – among both sexes – than the medium of 21 other countries studied.
In contrast, death rates were discovered to have reduced in 19 of the 21 other countries involved in the report, with only the US and Canada showing similar patterns to the UK. Britain now has the fourth highest overall female mortality, and sixth highest overall male mortality rate out of all the countries analysed.
Professor David Leon, leader of the research said: ‘Our analysis highlights that mortality rates in almost all parts of the UK (with the exception of London) have increasingly lagged behind the progress made by nearly all other high-income countries. While there are particularly worrying trends in Scotland and the North East of England, this deterioration in the UK’s position is truly a national problem – requiring action from central as well as devolved governments.
To give context into the ‘worrying trends’, the report highlights drug-related deaths among 25–49-year-olds in Scotland were around four times higher than in England. What’s more, the drug-related mortality rate in the North East was 3.5 times higher for men and almost four times higher for women than in London.
‘What is particularly disturbing about our findings is that the risk of dying among adults in the prime of life – those who have not yet got to age 50 – has been increasing in the UK for over a decade while in most other peer countries it has declined,’ Professor Leon added. ‘This is shocking as most mortality between the ages of 25-49 years is in principle avoidable.
‘More attention must be paid to providing better services to deal with substance abuse and mental health, as well as taking steps to deal with the causes of these multiple forms of self-harm.’
The full report can be accessed here.
Photo by Olga Kononenko via UnSplash
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