American adults have worse health in midlife, says University of Oxford study

The study compared their health with their peers in Britain and found that most American adults have significantly worse health in midlife.

Study in UK: University of Oxford conducted a study on adults in America and Britain in the age group of 33 to 46. The research compared the health measures such as cholesterol, weight, blood pressure and smoking habits.

The researchers found that American adults have more health issues in this age group. They have higher levels of obesity, and worse cardiovascular health as compared to their British counterparts. They also have disparities in health by socioeconomic factors.

Even the most socioeconomically advantaged groups in the US were found to have worse health as far as high cholesterol, hypertension and obesity are concerned as compared to people in the most disadvantaged groups in Britain. However, British adults were more likely to smoke and they rated their overall health worse.

Co-author Professor Jennifer Dowd, Deputy Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science and Oxford Population Health’s Demographic Science Unit said, "Despite the worse health of American compared to British adults in midlife, higher rates of smoking and growing obesity levels in Britain show that there is room for improvement in both countries. Worsening health trends in the US could serve as a warning for Britain and the need to focus on prevention and the broad social determinants of health."

Lead author, Dr Charis Bridger Staatz from UCL’s 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."

Oxford University's Study Details

The study also included researchers from other universities including from University of North Carolina, Syracuse University, and University College London’s (UCL) Centre for Longitudinal Studies. The study analysed the data of 5,000 American adults born between 1976 to 1983 and 10,000 British people born in 1970. The researchers measured their Body Mass Index (BMI), glucose, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure and the participants self-reported their quality of life and smoking habits. The data was then compared with two earlier studies including - the Add Health study in the US and the 1970 British Cohort Study in Britain.

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