Rich-poor health gap now at levels of 1920s

DESPITE government initiatives over the last few decades, the gap between the health of the rich and that of the poor is greater now than at any time since records began, according to a study published today.

Although life expectancy has risen, little or nothing has been done to close the gap between rates of premature death in poor people and those among the wealthy, the research team from Sheffield and Bristol universities discovered.

The study found that, in 1990/91, the poorest people in the UK were 1.6 times more likely to die prematurely than the most affluent people.

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However, by 2006/7, they were more than twice as likely to die than the wealthiest – meaning that, for every 100 people who died prematurely in the 10 richest areas of the UK, 200 people died in the poorest.

Dr Bethan Thomas, a researcher at Sheffield University and one of the report's authors, said: "We knew that the gap was there and we knew that the gap has been widening over time.

"What we were hoping was that, as we've had a Labour government trying to redistribute wealth and trying to reduce health inequalities, that we would see that the corner had been turned.

"However, that isn't what has happened. Part of it is, while you can redistribute wealth further down the chain, the last Government never did anything about the people at the top who were pulling away with the big bucks."

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, all of the 10 areas in the UK with the longest life expectancy are in the affluent south of England, with Kensington and Chelsea topping the list at 88.9 years.

Glasgow has the lowest life expectancy, with 77.2 years. No areas within Yorkshire and the Humber fall into either bracket.

The researchers analysed death rates in England and Wales from the Office for National Statistics, and for Scotland from the General Register Office for Scotland. The data on people aged under 75 ran from 1990 to 2007 and from 1921 for under-65s.

Health inequalities between the rich and poor have increased throughout the last 90 years. People in the most deprived areas of the country are now much more likely to die younger than those in the richest, the study found.

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The researchers said: "The last time in the long economic record that inequalities were almost as high as they are now was in the lead-up to the economic crash of 1929 and the economic depression of the 1930s."

The study also found that things may yet get worse. Writing in the online British Medical Journal, the research team said: "The economic crash of 2008 might precede even greater inequalities in mortality between areas in Britain."

Dr Thomas added: "It could get worse. The gap is wider now than it was in the 1920s. Although everyone's living longer, if we think back to the 1920s then there wasn't the NHS.

"Perhaps the NHS could have done a bit to close the gap, but it doesn't seem to have done so. Personally, I think that the most shocking thing is that, for every 100 people dying in the richest tenth of areas, there are 200 people dying in the poorest tenth."

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Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British Medical Association (BMA), added: "This paper provides an insight into the extent of health inequalities in the UK and how much needs to be done to address this issue."