Stephen Metcalfe MP. Member of Parliament for South Basildon and East Thurrock, Chair of the Parliamentary and Science Committee, Member of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee
It is to the credit of modern medicine, and those in the NHS tasked with its delivery, that a child born in the UK today can expect to live to nearly 80 for males and 83 for females (1). The average life expectancy for someone born between 1980 and 82 is 73. By 2015 – 17, this had risen to 80 and one in three born in 2016 will live to celebrate their 100th birthday (2).
However, these headlines give little indication of the quality of life we will be enjoying in later life. Since 2009, healthy life expectancy has remained stable while life expectancy has continued, for the most part to rise, even if this rise is small and not uniform across the population (3). As such, the number of years lived in poor health has increased slightly, as has the proportion of life spent in poor health. While those born today can expect to live to 80, they are forecast to spend up to a quarter of their lives in poor health. We must therefore ensure that greater focus is given to expanding healthy lifespan: healthspan.
This is why The Physiological Society’s report Growing Older, Better is so timely. Having met a number of physiologists, including some of those who gave their time to support this report, I can attest that physiology is core to understanding the changes in how our bodies work as we age, which will be crucial in solving some of the major challenges of our generation. Understanding the causes of age-related diseases and frailty can result in lifestyle and medical interventions to allow people to keep contributing longer into their lifespan. This will have benefits for the individual by increasing their quality of life in older age as well as easing the burden on health and care systems.
These are challenges that I recognise as part of my constituency work as a Member of Parliament. Although, there has been a welcome decline in the number of early deaths caused by cancer in my constituency of 20% since 2002, there remains much to be done to keep people healthy and active throughout life. If we want to extend the amount of time people spend in good health as they age, it is clear, as this report highlights, that more must be done to promote the science of physiology to improve quality of life.
With challenges however, come opportunities for innovation, particularly with the Government’s joined up approach to health and industry with the inclusion of healthy ageing as a key pillar of the Government’s Industrial Strategy. I also welcome the Government’s commitment to raise the amount that we spend on research and development to 2.4% of GDP by 2027, with an aspiration to get it up to 3%. Ensuring that physiology is at the heart of the Government’s healthy ageing agenda will be crucial to support the public to grow older, better.
References
- Office for National Statistics, ‘National Life Tables, United Kingdom, 1980-82 to 2015-2017’, www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/datasets/nationallifetablesunitedkingdomreferencetables
- Office for National Statistics, ‘What are your chances of living to 100?’, www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/articles/whatareyourchancesoflivingto100/2016-01-14
- 3 Office of National Statistics, ‘Healthy life expectancy at birth, years lived in “Not Good” health and the proportion of life spent healthy, by seX:uk, 2009-2011 and 2015-17’, www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/bulletins/healthstatelifeexpectanciesuk/2015to2017 [Figure 6]