UK falls behind Europe over healthy living standards for women and children

Women and children would be better off living in many other European countries, including Spain and Italy, than in the UK, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report.

Death rates among under-fives in the UK are higher than in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Finland and most countries to the west of Europe, while women face lower life expectancy, WHO researchers revealed.

The review’s chairman, Professor Sir Michael Marmot, also said the current high level of young people not in employment, education or training (Neets) – particularly the long-term unemployed – is a “public health time bomb waiting to explode”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He said: “Unemployment may be falling in the UK, but persistent high levels of the number of young people over 18 not in employment, education or training is storing up a public health time bomb waiting to explode.

“We are failing too many of our children, women and young people on a grand scale.

“I would say to any government that cares about the health of its population: look at the impact of their policies on the lives people are able to lead and, more importantly, at the impact on inequality.

“Health inequality, arising from social and economic inequalities, are socially unjust, unnecessary and avoidable, and it offends against the human right to health.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Data published in August showed there were 1.09 million 16 to 24-year-olds in the UK who were Neets in the quarter to June, down by 1,000 from the first three months of the year and by 104,000 from a year earlier.

The percentage of young people classed as Neet was unchanged at 15.1 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Yesterday’s report –the Review of Social Determinants and the Health Divide in the WHO European Region – was published by WHO and the University College London Institute of Health Equity.

It follows two years of research by Europe’s leading experts and follows a 2010 English review.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The report said the UK falls behind its closest European neighbours on key indicators such as female life expectancy, deaths of children under five and child poverty.

Female Life Expectancy is 83 in the UK, behind Spain (85), France (85), Italy (85), Cyprus (84) and Germany (84).

Death rates for under-fives in the UK (5.4 per 1,000 live births), which are linked to poverty, are higher than most countries in the east of Europe.