Rates of obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are lower among British adults in their 30s and 40s compared to their counterparts in the US, according to a new study led by UCL researchers. However, people in Britain are more likely to be regular smokers and to judge their health as poor. Published today in the International Journal of Epidemiology , the research also finds surprising evidence that American university graduates are more likely to have high blood pressure and high cholesterol than British adults without degrees.
In addition, the study reveals that socioeconomic inequalities in health are wider in the US than in Britain, especially for diabetes and smoking. Lead author, Dr Charis Bridger Staatz (UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies) said: "Our new research shows that although British adults are more likely to believe that their health is poor, they tend to have better cardiovascular health than their US counterparts in midlife. While we were unable to directly investigate the causes of this, we can speculate that differences in levels of exercise, diets and poverty, and limited access to free healthcare may be driving worse physical health in the USA.
Given political and social similarities between the US and Britain, the US acts as a warning of what the state of health could be like in Britain without the safety net of the NHS and a strong welfare system." Researchers from the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, University of Oxford, Syracuse Unive.