Health report: some progress but we are still too fat and drink too muchOctober 23, 2007England’s health rating in comparison with other European countries remains about average, despite signs of progress in tackling heart disease and cancer, a report released yesterday by the Department of Health shows.
The greatest worries surround diseases caused by food and drink, including obesity, diabetes and liver disease, the Health Profile of England 2007 suggests.
Drink-related causes of death are rising in England while falling in the European Union as a whole. Premature deaths from cirrhosis of the liver in men and women in England were the lowest in the EU in 1970, but have since risen to almost the EU average in men, and above the average in women.
Given that cirrhosis takes years to develop, these trends are likely to continue for some time. Drinkers in Britain consume 11.37 litres of pure alcohol a head per year, against an average for the “old” EU of 15 countries (before the 2004 enlargement) of 11.24 litres.
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