The UK now has one of the slowest improving life expectancies in the developed world, second only to the US, according to an official report.
After decades of progress, attempts to keep people living longer are beginning to fail, with people now only living three months longer than they did in 2011.
And obesity, winter deaths and dementia are all partly to blame for the increasing deaths, a damning report said today.
Improvements in life expectancy have ‘slowed down considerably’ since 2011, the report said, putting the UK 19th out of 20 comparable countries.
Improvements in life expectancy have almost plateaued for both men and women in England since 2011, a report published today by Public Health England confirmed
Public Health England’s report confirmed Britain is showing worse improvements than the EU as a whole and other comparable countries.
People in England are now expected to live for an average of 81.4 years, with men still leading shorter lives (79.6 years) than women (83.2 years).
Life expectancy increased by 0.1 years for women and 0.4 years for men in England between 2011 and 2016.
This, Public Health England, revealed is a significant drop from the 1.3 and 1.6-year increases reported between 2006 and 2011.
A spike in people dying in the winters since 2014 – potentially driven by dangerous flu outbreaks hitting an ageing population – is partly to blame, the report said.
And it’s becoming more difficult to reduce the number of people dying from heart attacks and strokes as more people are getting fat and living unhealthy lives.
Obesity increases people’s risk of heart disease and cancer, and it’s a growing problem – at least a quarter of adults and a fifth of children in the UK are obese.
The report said about heart disease: ‘Although other risk factors, such as smoking and cholesterol, reduced, there was an increase in the prevalence of obesity and diabetes.’
Cutting deaths from heart disease is key to increasing life expectancy, the Government body said – heart disease is the world’s biggest killer.
Professor Naveed Sattar from the University of Glasgow, told MailOnline big life expectancy improvements were made in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s because of reductions in smoking, blood pressure and high cholesterol.
But he said there has been a plateau of preventative health developments in recent years, and tackling diabetes and obesity could be the next big things.
‘These made big, big changes each time,’ said Professor Sattar. ‘Since then we haven’t had a significant [improvement] for anything else.’
While deaths for most diseases are reducing (shown in green, the reduction in deaths per 100,000 people ), some have worsening death rates (in red). For example, the number of people dying of dementia has, in each of the past six years, risen by 6.2 men per 100,000 and 7.4 women
He added: ‘We now have far better therapies for diabetes and improving treatments for heart failure,’ but said there isn’t one easy target.
‘Obesity carries some risk like high blood pressure, cholesterol and but it also affects people in ways we don’t yet understand and can’t mitigate,’ Professor Sattar said.
For the UK to improve its life expectancy to be like Japan, where the average person lives for 84 years, losing weight could be key, he suggested.
‘People’s BMIs in Japan tend to be significantly lower than in the UK. They tend to be much leaner for longer.
‘Obesity could make part of the explanation for the future – the UK is one of the most obese nations in Europe.’
Dr Veena Raleigh of health thinktank The King’s Fund added: ‘Improvements in life expectancy are slowing across the developed world.’
‘But the UK has seen the most significant slowdown of any country apart from the United States.
‘Public Health England’s report is a welcome, if somewhat overdue, start to understanding why life expectancy is stalling in England.
‘It paints a complex picture but confirms that a slowdown in improvements in mortality from heart disease and an increase in winter deaths from flu and other respiratory diseases are significant factors.
‘Action to reverse these worrying trends is urgently needed to avoid UK sliding further down international league tables.’
In a comparison of other developed countries by the Office for National Statistics, the UK came second worst for improvements between 2000 and 2016.
The improvement for British women in the same period was bottom of the table, which included the US, Australia, Canada and Japan.
The country also performed worse for both men and women when compared with the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Czech Republic, Denmark and Italy.
The report also found the gap in life expectancy between the richest and most deprived areas of England has widened to 8.3 years.
It said the life expectancy of women in the most deprived communities had actually fallen by five months between 2010 and 2016.
Increasing numbers of people are dying in the winter in England, which could be slowing down life expectancy improvements, PHE’s report said.
Last winter there were 50,100 excess deaths in the winter, which was higher than any other year since 1976.
People are more likely to die of heart attack, stroke or pre-existing lung disease in cold weather, and an older population means more people are dying in flu season.
The NHS has also suffered worsening winter crises in recent years, causing staff and bed shortages which have coincided with rising deaths in the season.
Although death rates are reducing for most diseases, some conditions are showing an increase in the likelihood of dying from them.
These include dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, which made the biggest negative contribution to life expectancy between 2011 and 2016.
Dementia is killing six more women and seven more men per 100,000 people than it did six years ago, PHE showed.
Chronic lower respiratory diseases (lung diseases) are killing more men and women, and cirrohosis and liver disease is on the rise in men.
Professor John Newton, director of health improvement at PHE, said: ‘With the number of people aged 85 years and over set to increase, we’re likely to see the burden of dementia and many other long term conditions follow suit.
‘What comes out loud and clear from the evidence is the potential for effective prevention activity, particularly for heart disease, to improve health outcomes and reduce the enormous disparities in life expectancy.’