Low life expectancy of British women

The World Health Organization study found that women born in 2011 are expected to live to 82.7 years, with only females in Denmark projected to live shorter lives than us.

With men in the United Kingdom , the life expectancy is at the European average.

She said this could have the most serious impact on young people, since their lives may be shortened unless something is done to reduce consumption of tobacco, alcohol and calories.

This means the number of people whose lives are cut short by cardiovascular disease, such as cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, is steadily declining.

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age United Kingdom said: “It is deeply concerning that the United Kingdom is lagging behind nearly all of the most developed nations in Europe in terms of average life expectancy for women”.

“The European region has the highest levels of alcohol consumption and tobacco use in the world, and ranks only slightly behind the region of the Americas – the WHO region with the highest prevalence – in rates of overweight and obesity, ” it said”.

Dr Claudia Stein, Director of the Regional Office’s Division of Information, Evidence, Research and Innovation, said poor lifestyle may be triggering early death.

The European region, including European Union member states as well as former Soviet republics, has the world’s highest rates of drinking and smoking, according to the European Health Report 2015 published by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

“These risks, combined with rising obesity, could mean that life expectancy falls in future generations”, the report states.

Male life expectancy at the United Kingdom is 78.8 years, the report shows – sixth best in western Europe.

‘What we do not want to see is that we are winning the war against alcohol and smoking but losing the war against obesity’. Finland has the lowest rate, at around two per 1,000, while Kyrgyzstan has around 22.

But, Ms Stein warned the “differences in health status between European countries are… inexplicably wide”.

“If you accept that too much sugar is bad for health – and we know that because WHO issued revised recommendations a year ago , where we say no more than 10% of sugar in your total calories, and it is even more advisable to limit your sugar to 5% – then countries may consider using what they find more effective to address this issue of sugar consumption”.

In 2010, Ireland had the sixth-highest alcohol consumption rate, at nearly 12 litres, but it was highest in Belarus, in Eastern Europe, at 14.4 litres.

The report also looked into vaccination rates and found that the average measles immunization coverage has been increasing over the years.