A volunteer selects food for a visitor’s order at a foodbank in west London (Photo: Ben Stansall/ AFP via Getty Images)

The health of poor Britons is now worse than it was a century ago, a study has found.

Rich people have always been in better health than poor folk, but it now appears the differences are widening.

A professor from University College Lonon analysed surveys completed by 200,000 working-age people over the course of the past 100 years and found evidence of a growing ‘health gap’ in the UK.

The finding adds to ‘a growing body of research which shows that health outcomes in Britain are linked to socioeconomic status and that differences in these between the richest and poorest in society have widened since the 1970s’, he wrote.




Dr Stephen Jivraj looked at differences in the prevalence of long term ‘limiting illness’ and self-reported general health between the richest and the poorest 30 to 59 year- olds for this period. 1979-2011

He found that inequalities in the prevalence of long term conditions between the richest and poorest households had doubled among women and by 1.5 times among men born in 1920-22 compared with those born in 1968-70.

Roughly one in four men born in 1920-22, who lived in the poorest households said they had a limiting illness compared with around one in six in the richest households.

For men born between 1968-70, more than a third of poor reported a chronic condition compared with only around one in 10 of those living in wealthy homes.

A man on a mobility scooter passes the Wonderland amusement part in Jaywick, Essex, which has previously been ranked as one of the most deprived areas in the UK (Photo: Jack Taylor/ Getty Images)

Of the poor women born between 1920 and 22, 15% reported ‘not good’ health compared with nearly one in 8%)in the richest households. For women born in 1968-70, 19% said their health wasn’t ‘good’ compared with 9% of rich ladies.

“The results presented here show a widening in health inequalities by income in later-born British birth cohorts, 1920-70,’ Jivraj wrote.

‘They point to a greater future demand in healthcare from people in society who will be least capable of managing their health as they enter ages when [ill health] becomes more common.’

Unless action is taken, there will ‘likely be further widening of the gap in early deaths between the richest and poorest in society’, meaning poor people are more likely to die at a younger age.

‘This is doubly important because of the growing size of later-born postwar baby boom cohorts up to 1972 that will mean that there is likely to be more people in poor health irrespective of relative declines in the prevalence of [long term conditions] in later born postwar cohorts,’ he added.