The study into global diseases has been published in the medical journal The Lancet. The report is titled “Changes in health in England, with analysis by English regions and areas of deprivation, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013.”
Some interesting statistics concerning England are:
Between 1990 and 2013, life expectancy in England rose by 5.4 years, from 75.9 years in 1990 to 81.3 years in 2013.
This increase came about as deaths from cardiovascular disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and some cancers fell.
South East England has the lowest disease burden in the country, as stand well compared to the European Union as a whole.
Health in England overall is better than the European Union average.
The primary reasons for recent improvements are said to relate to unhealthy diet and tobacco use.
Commenting on the medical research, Professor John Newton, Chief Knowledge Officer, Public Health England, stated: “The findings show the huge opportunity for preventive public health. If levels of health in the worst performing regions in England matched the best performing ones, England would have one of the lowest burdens of disease of any developed country.”
As far as England is concerned, Public Health England think that this country within Britain has the potential to achieve the lowest total disease burden (as expressed by years of life lost to death and lived with disability) in the world.
However, as the authors conclude, although people are living longer they are not necessarily healthy: “Declines in mortality have not been matched by similar declines in morbidity, resulting in people living longer with diseases.” The biggest risk disease is diabetes type 2, which has an association with obesity.
