Health inequalities, lives cut short (1 January 2024)

Summary

This report by the Institute of Health Equity (IHE) highlights that a million people in 90% of areas in England lived shorter lives than they should have between 2011 and the start of the pandemic.

Using several published ONS data sources, calculations were made from the number of excess deaths in the decade from 2011 in England. The report's findings add to evidence about the cumulative impact of regressive funding cuts associated with austerity on the population's health. As a result of austerity, life expectancy failed to increase, and actually fell for women in the 10% of poorest areas, and health inequalities widened.

Content

Key findings

• The period from 2011 to 2019 saw 890,000 people dying earlier than they otherwise would have done had they experienced the death rates seen in the least deprived quintile (20 percent) of areas.
• Around 102,000 of these deaths were additional to what might have been expected based on levels in the two years prior to 2011.
• In 2020, the level of excess deaths rose by over a further 24,000 compared to that over the previous five years.
• Based on weekly monitoring figures published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), there were nearly 11,000 more excess deaths in the most deprived 80 percent of areas during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 than in the least deprived 20 percent.
• This suggests that over 13,000 deaths in 2020 (the difference between 24,000 and 11,000 deaths) were associated with the pre-existing trend in mortality due to inequality.
• If the above comparisons are made with a less deprived group, the least deprived decile (10 percent) of areas, these figures reduce, but only slightly: Over a million people dying earlier than they otherwise would have done in 2011-19. Around 148,000 of these were additional to what might have been expected based on levels in the two years prior to 2011. About a further 28,000 deaths in 2020 in excess of the level in the previous five years.