Health gap between rich and poor getting wider

23/07/2010

Inequality at record high and set to get worse, say researchers

The gap between the health of the rich and the poor has widened to a record high, according to the latest research.

Despite government initiatives over the past few decades, life expectancies of poor people are further from the rich than ever before.

A study of deaths since 1921 showed the gap is no better than during the economic depression of the 1930s.

Writing online in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), researchers from the Universities of Sheffield and Bristol, said: "The last time in the long economic record that inequalities were almost as high was in the lead up to the economic crash of 1929 and the economic depression of the 1930s."

They also warned things could be about to become even worse, with the economic downturn of the past couple of years impacting on the health of Britain's poorest families.

"The economic crash of 2008 might precede even greater inequalities in mortality between areas in Britain," researchers said.