PruHealth has revealed new research that shows a third of Britons want people to pay for ‘self-inflicted’ health issues, two thirds believe the nation is unhealthier now than ten years ago and half expect the range and quality of NHS care to decline over the next few years.

Two thirds (66%)* of Britons believe the nation is unhealthier now than it was ten years ago, and taking more personal responsibility (69%) could be the best foot forward.

The latest findings from PruHealth, the insurer that rewards people for engaging in healthy behaviour, found respondents to be in line with Cameron’s ‘Big Society’. More than two thirds (69%) of the nation believe people should take more responsibility for their own health, while just 19 per cent feel it should lie on the shoulders of the NHS. Nearly a third of Britons (30%) even go as far as believing those with ‘self-inflicted’ health concerns caused by smoking, alcohol abuse or being overweight should pick up the bill themselves.

While half of respondents (50%) feel the NHS currently offers a good level of care, many believe the range (67%) and quality (49%) of services are likely to decrease in the next few years.

Dr Katherine Tryon at PruHealth said: “People have realised that the nation’s health is worse than even a decade ago and now the issue is whose responsibility is it to change this – which is particularly crucial at a time when there is increased pressure on healthcare finances. The key for both the public and private sector will be to remove the barriers to healthy living – for example, increasing access to healthy activities and providing stronger motivation through both financial and non financial incentives.”

What Brits consider as the nation’s problems are not necessarily ones they would class as their own. For example, over half of respondents (52%) state obesity and being overweight as the greatest risk to the UK. According to 2008 data from the latest Health and Social Care Information Centre report** a quarter of adults (25% men, 24% women) are obese, and 42% and 32% of men and women are overweight, yet in this nationally representative survey less than one in ten (9%) of respondents consider it a personal healthcare concern.

Via EPR Network
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