Trends in healthy life expectancy in the age of austerity

David Walsh · Grant M. A. Wyper · Gerry McCartney

47 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Epidemiology & Community Health

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Health disparities and outcomes Insurance, Mortality, Demography, Risk Management Employment and Welfare Studies

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Worrying changes in life expectancy trends have been observed recently in the UK, largely attributed to austerity policies introduced over the last decade. To incorporate changes to quality, rather than just length of, life, our aim was to describe trends in healthy life expectancy (HLE) for the relevant period. METHODS: In the absence of available long-term trends, we calculated new estimates of HLE for Scotland for the period 1995-2019, using standard HLE methodologies based on mortality and national survey data, and stratified by sex and socioeconomic deprivation. RESULTS: Overall, male and female HLE increased markedly between 1995 and 2009, but then decreased by approximately 2 years between 2011 and 2019. A decline was observed for the most and least deprived groups, but this was larger for those living in the 20% most deprived areas, where the decrease was 3.5 years. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are further evidence of changing levels of pre-pandemic population health in the UK. An increasing body of UK and international evidence have attributed these changes to UK Government austerity policies. There is an urgent need, therefore, to reverse cuts to social security and protect the income and health of the poorest across all of the UK.

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References

2018Why is life expectancy in England and Wales ‘stalling’?2018Contributions of diseases and injuries to widening life expectancy inequalities in England from 2001 to 2016: a population-based analysis of vital registration data 2021Trends in life expectancy and healthy life years at birth and age 65 in the UK, 2008–2016, and other countries of the EU28: An observational cross-sectional study 2021Life expectancy and risk of death in 6791 communities in England from 2002 to 2019: high-resolution spatiotemporal analysis of civil registration data 2019Socioeconomic inequality in recent adverse all-cause mortality trends in Scotland

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