England has potential for lowest disease burden in the world

A Public Health England (PHE) led study reveals England’s potential to have the lowest total disease burden in the world

The PHE led study published in The Lancet ranks the diseases and risk factors that cause death and disability in England compared with other high-income countries, revealing the nation’s potential to have the world’s lowest total disease burden - years of life lost to death and lived with disability.

Between 1990 and 2013, life expectancy in England increased by 5.4 years - one of the biggest increases compared with other EU countries.

This was mainly because of falls in the death rate from cardiovascular disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and some cancers.

Known potentially preventable risk factors taken together explain 40% of ill health in England.  

Unhealthy diet and tobacco are the two largest contributors. This shows that improvements in life expectancy haven’t been matched by improvements in levels of ill-health.

The population is living longer but spending more years in ill-health, often with a combination of conditions, some of which would have previously been fatal like diabetes.

Professor John Newton, chief knowledge officer, Public Health England, said: “The findings show the huge opportunity for preventive public health. If levels of health in the worst performing regions in England matched the best performing ones, England would have one of the lowest burdens of disease of any developed country.

“And even though there have been big falls in premature mortality, the top causes of early deaths in England and in each English region are still heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which to a greater or lesser extent, are attributable to preventable risk factors.”

Professor Kevin Fenton, director of health and wellbeing, Public Health England, said: “People are living longer, but they are living longer with disability, which will require more integrated models of care spanning health and social services.

“The other important implication for health services is that it is likely that up to 40% of its workload is due to potentially preventable risk factors. This reaffirms the importance of people taking positive steps today, liking eating well and stopping smoking, to improve their health in the long term.”