Rates of obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are lower among British adults aged in their thirties and forties compared with their counterparts in the US, according to the latest research. However, Britons are more likely to be regular smokers and to judge their health as poor.
Published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, the research from a team led by University College London (UCL) also found evidence that American university graduates are more likely to have high blood pressure and high cholesterol than British adults without degrees.
In addition, the study revealed that socioeconomic inequalities in health are wider in the US than in Britain, especially for diabetes and smoking.
Lead author Dr Charis Bridger Staatz from the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies said: “Our new research shows that, although British adults are more likely to believe that their health is poor, they tend to have better cardiovascular health than their US counterparts in midlife.
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“While we were unable to directly investigate the causes of this, we can speculate that differences in levels of exercise, diets and poverty, and limited access to free healthcare may be driving worse physical health in the USA.
“Given political and social similarities between the US and Britain, the US acts as a warning of what the state of health could be like in Britain without the safety net of the NHS and a strong welfare system,” added Dr Staatz.
The researchers, from the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, University of Oxford, Syracuse University and University of North Carolina, analysed information from almost 10,000 British people born in 1970, who are taking part in the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70).
They compared this data with information from 5,000 American adults, born between 1976-1983, who are being followed by the Add Health study.
In both nationally representative studies, trained nurses measured blood pressure, cholesterol, BMI and whether blood sugar levels indicated diabetes. Study participants reported how good they thought their health was and how regularly they smoked cigarettes.
They found that US adults in midlife were more likely to have high blood pressure (22.5% versus 19%) and high cholesterol (11% versus 8%) compared with their middle-aged British counterparts.
Additionally, they were more likely to be obese (40% versus 34.5%). British adults, however, were more likely to smoke every day (28% versus 21%) and report their health as poor (18% versus 12%).
In a separate analysis, the authors examined whether people’s health in each country differed by their socioeconomic background, measured by their income and education level.
They discovered that, in both Britain and the US, advantaged adults tended to have better physical health and healthier habits than their disadvantaged peers. However, for most health conditions, the US had significantly wider inequalities than Britain.
In the US, the poorest adults were around eight times more likely to have diabetes than the richest and were seven times more likely to smoke. In Britain, the poorest adults were twice as likely for both diabetes and smoking. Wider inequalities were also found in the US for obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
When looking at people’s health by their own education level and that of their parents, the researchers found that American graduates were more likely to have high blood pressure and high cholesterol than British adults without degrees. They also discovered that US adults with graduate parents were as likely to be obese as British individuals whose parents did not have degrees.
Senior author Professor George Ploubidis, again from the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, said: “In some ways, these findings could be seen to paint a positive picture for the nation, as the health of adults in Britain is better than that in the USA.
“Nevertheless, this research should not distract us from the fact that more than a third of British adults are obese and a fifth have high blood pressure in midlife. The new government’s pledges to cut NHS waiting times will be severely tested if this and future generations continue to age in poor health.”
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