The recession is leaving us feeling stressed
The nation appears to be stuck in a downward spiral of unhealthy lifestyles as increasingly stressed Britons may be looking to save time and money by cutting back on exercise and healthy foods in the current economic climate.
According to PruHealth’s bi-annual Vitality Index - which tracks the nation’s health trends across stress, exercise, diet, smoking, health knowledge and check-ups - the health of the nation has declined by two points since July 2008 to a health rating of just 59 per cent today. Worryingly, nearly one in five (18 per cent) Brits now admit they live unhealthy lifestyles, an increase of 4 per cent in just six months.
It seems the recession is leaving people not only overworked, but increasingly overwhelmed. In the last six months the percentage of Brits saying they are under a great deal or a significant amount of stress has increased from 38 per cent to 40 per cent. As confidence in the economy has decreased it is perhaps of little surprise that almost half (44 per cent) of Brits report their stress levels have increased.
Half (50 per cent) of these stressed adults disclose that stress is affecting their personal life and many now feel that it is the greatest health risk to the nation (10 per cent). Perhaps unsurprisingly, two in five (41 per cent) people suffering from stress put their increased stress levels down to their money worries and 22 per cent say this is down to increased workload with the same number citing redundancy worries.
Interestingly, it is those in poor health who have seen the most significant rise in their stress levels, up from 56 per cent to 64 per cent. Those in good health cited only a slight rise from 32 per cent to 34 per cent.
The problems of increased stress are being exacerbated by lack of exercise. The number of people reporting that they never exercise has increased from 11 per cent to 14 per cent in just six months. Over a quarter (28 per cent) of adults blame work commitments for their lack of exercise. At a time when exercise can be used to help decrease stress levels, it appears people are exercising even less due to both time and money pressures.
Of those who do exercise, less than a third (29 per cent) exercise four times a week or more and the percentage of adults doing the government-recommended 30 minutes of exercise each session has fallen significantly from 64 per cent to 57 per cent in just six months.
Commenting on the findings, Dr David Grainger, Senior Fellow, Cambridge University, said: "In just six months there has been a marked widening of the ‘health gap’ as lifestyle improvements evaporate. Replicated across the entire adult population of the UK, these findings suggest a staggering two million more people have an unhealthy lifestyle than six months ago. The most likely cause? Economic recession."
With the threat of an obesity epidemic still on the horizon, the percentage of adults eating a healthy balanced diet has also dropped from 50 per cent to 47 per cent.
Almost half of Brits (47 per cent) say they struggle to eat the recommended "5-a-day" servings of fresh fruit and vegetables; only 24 per cent manage to eat their 5 portions on a daily basis and alarmingly a fifth (21 per cent) only get their daily intake of fresh fruit and veg once a week or less.
Primarily, it’s the perceived cost of exercising and eating healthily that is driving more people to cut exercise and healthy eating out of their daily routines. Over half (56 per cent) of Britons feel they cannot currently afford the added expenses associated with being healthy, such as gym memberships and super-foods, and over one in three (37 per cent) say they find it hard to take care of themselves due to their busy schedule. Sixty one per cent of people simply feel healthy foods are more expensive than the unhealthy alternatives.
Shaun Matisonn, chief executive at PruHealth, comments: "Not only are increased financial and time pressures taking a toll on our stress levels, but they are also having an impact on the amount of exercise people are doing and the content of our diets too. However, it’s a lack of health self-awareness that is the key issue. Three-quarters of people see the health of themselves and their loved ones as a key priority, but for the majority it would take a diagnosis of ill health to motivate any significant change of lifestyle.
"Finding a way to motivate a change in lifestyle is the biggest hurdle. We need to find a way of helping people to stop thinking about what they should be doing for their health and actually doing it. We need to set achievable targets, this way people can take action now to prevent illness, rather than waiting to be diagnosed with a problem."
Tagged in Stress