No change in health gap between England’s richest and poorest

Press release - Links: - Summary and full copies of the HSE 2009 - UCL Epidemiology & Public Health - Natcen - NHS Information Centre Significant health inequalities still exist between the country's richest and poorest according to the latest findings from the biggest annual survey of health in England, The Health Survey for England. The survey, conducted by UCL and the National Centre for Social Research and funded by The NHS Information Centre, shows that people in the lowest income households continue to experience much worse outcomes across key health measures than people in the highest income households. Men and women in the lowest income bracket are three times more likely than those in the highest income bracket to have kidney disease and to smoke. The disparity in health between England's richest and poorest is particularly marked amongst women, with those in the lowest income bracket four times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes and twice as likely to be obese than women in the highest income bracket. Vasant Hirani, Senior Research Fellow in UCL's Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, and co-editor of the study, said: 'This important survey provides an annual health check for the nation, and shows that there are still marked inequalities in health between different socio-economic groups. There is a clear social gradient, with people with lower incomes much more likely to experience poor health than those that are more affluent.