UK : Deaths of despair claim more middle-aged life than heart disease

One of the world’s leading economists has warned of a rise of “deaths of despair” in Britain, revealing that suicide, drug abuse and alcoholism are now claiming more middle-aged lives than heart disease.

Sir Angus Deaton, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, told Sky News that there is a risk the UK will follow in America’s footsteps and faces a sharp increase in self-inflicted deaths as people deal with increasing economic and socially isolation.

He says that among Britons aged 45 -54 the number of deaths of despair per 100,000 people has risen from just over 20 in 1993 to 43 in 2017.

That puts it above heart disease, historically one of the biggest killers in that age group; it claimed 40 lives per 100,000 in 2017.

via Sky News