Findings on healthy life expectancy in UK shed light on its deteriorating health

Metric gives fuller picture than life expectancy, which is simply how long people live, says Health Foundation

• People in UK spend fewer years in good health than a decade ago, study finds

The obesity crisis, the record 2.8 million working-age Britons too sick to do so and the rising prevalence of mental illness are sobering reminders that the UK population’s health is not good.

But even for those familiar with this troubling situation, the Health Foundation’s analysis of the latest Office for National Statistics figures on healthy life expectancy sheds uncomfortable new light on the country’s poor and deteriorating health.