Drugs, violence and suicide are contributing to rising death rates in under-50s in the UK, says new analysis from the Health Foundation – in contrast to other wealthy countries.
The briefing document compares trends in mortality both within the UK and with more than 20 other high-income countries, based on new research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. ‘The findings are stark, underlining deep inequalities in health between different parts of the UK and a worrying decline in UK health compared with international peers,’ it states.
The 2010s saw improvements in UK mortality rates slow significantly across all UK nations and regions, more than in ‘most other countries studied’. As of 2023, the UK mortality rate for women was 14 per cent higher than the median for peer countries while the male mortality rate was almost 10 per cent higher. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have higher mortality rates than England, with Scotland performing ‘particularly poorly’.
People aged between 25 and 49 have seen a ‘particularly pronounced’ relative worsening of mortality rates, the briefing says, with UK female mortality rates for this age group almost 50 per cent higher than the peer country median. While mortality rates for cancers and circulatory diseases improved for this age range between 2001 and 2019, death rates for ‘external causes’ went up. While drug-related death rates in peer countries have continued to decline, in the UK they have risen sharply.
There were almost 5,500 drug-related deaths in England and Wales in 2023, up 11 per cent on the previous year, while Scotland has long had the highest drug-related death rate in Europe. Of all the countries studied for the briefing, the only country with a higher overall mortality rate than Scotland was the US.
There are also ‘stark’ geographical inequalities in drug-related mortality within England, the report stresses. In the North East, drug-related mortality rates increased by nearly 300 per cent for women and 120 per cent for men between 2001 and 2019, and in the West Midlands by 156 per cent and 96 per cent. ‘On the other hand, rates barely changed in London and the East of England’, it states. For alcohol-related deaths, meanwhile, mortality rates are three times higher in the North East than in London. While mortality rates for suicide and ‘deaths of undetermined intent’ also went up, the increases were lower than for drug-related deaths, it points out.
A wide range of evidence shows that the UK’s health is ‘fraying’, the report states. ‘Improvements in life expectancy have stalled, a growing number of people are expected to live in ill health, and deep inequalities in health persist between the poorest and wealthiest communities.
‘With the UK comparing poorly with many other high-income countries, improvement is both possible and urgently needed,’ it continues. ‘This will require long-term action for economic recovery in areas of long run industrial decline; a strong focus on prevention; investment in public health services and action to address risk factors such as smoking, alcohol and poor diet; and a concerted effort to tackle drug-related deaths. These actions should be brought together in a clear strategy for tackling health inequalities. The UK government’s health mission promised just such an approach, but progress so far has been slow. This needs to change or the UK’s health will fall further behind its international peers.’
‘Many drug overdose deaths are preventable,’ added chair of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, David Fothergill. ‘Ensuring robust practices are in place, along with the policies or protocols to support those at the greatest risk, can prevent overdoses and subsequent fatalities. As well as this, we must support and expand the provision of naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opiate overdose and provide overdose training for drug service users, drug users not in treatment, family and friends, hostel residents and others.’
UK mortality trends and international comparisons available here