Britons Are Less Healthy

Even though there has been a massive shift of emphasis from treating ill health towards health care prevention the latest report from private medical insurance company PruHealth shows that British people are more likely to wait until they are diagnosed with a condition before they make positive preventative health and lifestyle changes.

The general results of the bi-annual Vitality Index survey showed that people generally consider themselves to be more unhealthy than they were a year ago and 44% of British people reported that they are more stressed than this time last year. The recession and the financial concerns it brings were considered to be instrumental to the current changes.

47% of British people reported that they did not eat the recommended 5 portions of fruit and veg a day and 21% of respondents only managed to do this once a week. Only a fifth exercise the recommended 5 days a week or more. 56% said that the reason that they felt they could not maintain a healthier lifestyle was financial. Overall the Vitality Index report suggested that a staggering 2 million people have a more unhealthy lifestyle that six months ago.

In a press release, Shaun Matisonn, CEO at PruHealth, commented: 'The most concerning figure here is undoubtedly the 79 per cent of people who will wait until they are diagnosed with an illness before making any attempt to improve their health and fitness, rather than making a lifestyle change now in order to prevent being diagnosed with an illness in the future.

'Finding a way to motivate a change in lifestyle is the biggest hurdle we face as a society, but using incentives to encourage people to look after their health and wellbeing is an extremely powerful motivator.'

Dr David Grainger, Senior Fellow, Cambridge University, commented on the findings:

'Even though three-quarters of people see the health of themselves and their loved ones as a key priority, for the majority it would take diagnosis of ill health to motivate any significant change of lifestyle. It is hard to over-estimate how big a hurdle this is to promoting change. It is disappointing to see that only 13 per cent of respondents had regular health checks, despite the emphasis of the public health message on prevention rather than cure.

'Interestingly, though, more than half of the population say they would change their lifestyle in response to rewards and incentives. Giving serious thought to incentives for a healthy lifestyle must therefore move higher up the public health agenda.'

The findings show an important link between the public's perceptions of wellbeing and its costs and also highlights that the government's educational health campaigns may not be working. They have been promoting wellbeing and prevention by encouraging small low cost improvements in lifestyle via their latest Change 4 Life campaign. Over the last few years the supermarket Tesco have been reducing the cost of five different fruit and vegetables every week in order to tempt the public to their stores in line with the current NHS and World Health Organisation guidelines.

Additionally, all medical insurance companies are providing information about health and wellbeing and encouraging people to have regular health screens.

Ipsos MORI conducted the Vitality Index survey on behalf of PruHealth. The results were taken from a survey of 3,034 adults whom were questioned online in January 2009.