How obesity is impacting life expectancy in the UK. Recent studies reveal alarming trends and the need for urgent public health interventions.
In an article published in The Lancet Public Health journal (‘Changing life expectancy in European countries 1990-2021 - a sub analysis of causes and risk factors from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021’) researchers examined life expectancy in major European countries, measured over three periods; 1990-2011, 2011-2019 and finally 2019-2021.
Life expectancy is regarded as an important summary measure of the health of populations. It has increased in high income countries since 1900 save for the periods spanning the two world wars and the Spanish influenza epidemic in 1918-19. The rise in life expectancy has been driven by better nutrition and living standards and a greater control of infectious diseases, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.
The findings
The main findings were that life expectancy had slowed since 2011 and had even reduced during the period 2019-2021 by -0.18 years due to the covid pandemic. England amongst all European countries had seen the biggest decrease in improvement. Whilst it had seen a mean increase of 0.25 years between 1990 and 2011, this had fallen to just 0.07 years between 2011 and 2019. This compared to an all countries increase of 0.15 years over the same period.
Why has life expectancy stalled?
Researchers observed the major risk factors to be a harmful diet which included consumption of ultra processed food, tobacco smoke, a high BMI, high alcohol consumption, air pollution and low levels of physical activity.
Commentary
The findings evidence a disparity in European countries which should act as a wake-up call for Public Health officials in the UK. Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium continued to make progress after 2011, largely thought to represent, not only better access to high quality preventative healthcare and treatment but a combination of cultural, social, economic and policy factors alongside sustained policy intervention.
Researchers noted that Norway has a long history of fiscal intervention to reduce sugar consumption (a tax on sugar has been in place since 1922) and that the Norwegian government consulted with industry as early as the 1980’s to reduce the amount of salt in food products.
The evidence points to the need for systematic strategies to be implemented to achieve improvements in diet, obesity levels and physical activity which in turn will drive improvements in life expectancy levels.
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