Ageing Britons More Likely To Be Impoverished And Unwell, Says Report
Millions more people can expect to live their last years in poverty and hardship, with increasing health challenges, a damning independent report has said.
An increasing number of people reaching old age is putting pressure on health services, the Centre for Ageing Better, who ran the report, said.
But Dr Anna Dixon from the Centre was keen to assert “our current rates of chronic illness, mental health conditions, disability and frailty could be greatly reduced if we tackled the structural, economic and social drivers of poor health earlier”.
The figure for the 65-and-overs in the UK is expected to almost double in the next two decades, growing by 40%, while households with members aged 85-and-over is the fastest growing statistic.
The report points out a wealth disparity with ageing, that the poorest in society are three times as likely to retire early due to health complications and the poorest men in society are three times as likely to develop chronic heart disease than the wealthiest.
Additionally, the poorest women are also three times as likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than the wealthiest women.
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