Life expectancy not improving for first time in 100 years

For the first time in more than 100 years life expectancy has failed to increase across the country, and for the poorest 10% of women it has actually declined, according to a new report from Sir Michael Marmot and the UCL Institute of Health Equity. 10 years on since Sir Marmot first published the Marmot Review, the new report confirms that over the last decade health inequalities have widened overall, and the amount of time people spend in poor health has increased since 2010. It also shows an increase in the north/south health gap, where the largest decreases were seen in the most deprived 10% of neighbourhoods in the North East, and the largest increases in the least deprived 10% of neighbourhoods in London. The 2020 review discounts the theory that the slowdown in life expectancy increase can be solely attributed to severe winters or flu. The report lays out that more than 80% of the slowdown, between 2011 and 2019, results from influences other than winter-associated mortality. And the slow-down in life expectancy improvement in the UK is more marked than in most European and other high-income countries, except the USA. The review highlights that our health is not just a matter of how well the health service is funded and functions, important as that is.