Mental illness is Britain’s biggest health concern

Mental health has overtaken cancer and obesity as the health problem people in Britain are most likely to worry about, a new survey has found.

The annual survey, which asked people worldwide, about their health and the health care they receive, was carried out by the polling company Ipsos. The company interviewed 23,667 people in 31 countries, including the US, Malaysia and India, in July and August. That included a representative selection of 1,000 Britons.

When the Ipsos Global Healthcare Monitor study was first conducted in 2018, half of British respondents identified cancer, obesity and mental illness as among the biggest health problems facing the country. While that topline figure (50%) hasn’t changed, the relative position of the three conditions has. Mental illness is now the condition that the biggest number of people (54%) in England, Wales and Scotland say is a worry.

Obesity was only mentioned this year by 36%, while cancer was cited by 49%.

The answers from other countries saw a similar shift. In 2018, 27% of people in the 31 countries said mental illness was a pressing health concern. But now 45% do so – more than any other illness.  This year, a majority in 12 countries cited mental health, while in 2018 that was the case in only three countries.

Over the same period, the proportion of people mentioning cancer worldwide has fallen noticeably – from 52% to 38% – while the number citing obesity has dropped from 33% to 26%.

Pandemic’s biggest long-term effect may be on mental health

Some may find the change surprising, as the number of people getting cancer has increased significantly – an increase driven by an ageing population and lifestyle factors such as bad diet, smoking and alcohol intake. It may be that the higher survival rates and new treatments have made people less concerned.

According to Ipsos, the trends represent a “fundamental shift in attitudes to mental health compared to 2018″, adding: “Perhaps the pandemic’s biggest long-term effect on public health will be on mental health.”

Women were much more likely than men to see mental health as a significant worry, both in Britain and globally, Ipsos found. Worldwide, 51% of women mentioned it, but only 40% of men. This gap is even wider among the youngest generation with 55% of Gen Z women choosing mental health compared to 37% of their male counterparts.

Globally, fewer people think the quality of their health care is good. Forty-four per cent on average describe the quality of the healthcare they have access to as good. Satisfaction rose during the Covid-19 pandemic (53% in 2021) and has now returned to where it was in 2018 (44%).

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents feel their health care system is overstretched. This figure has steadily risen since the start of the Ipsos Health Service Report series and is 10 percentage points higher than in 2018. In Great Britain, eight in 10 (82%) say their health system is overstretched.

Simon Atkinson, Ipsos’s chief knowledge officer, said: “Here in the UK we’re seeing growing recognition of mental health as a major concern, with 54% of Britons now saying it’s a pressing health issue facing the country.”

Andy Bell, the chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health thinktank, said that the greater anxiety about wellbeing was not a surprise because “the nation’s mental health has been deteriorating over the last decade, with rates of mental ill-health and referrals to mental health services rising”.

Bell also noted that women “have higher rates of mental ill-health than men”, adding: “Women are more likely than men to be living in poverty, and male violence heightens too many women’s risk of mental health difficulties.”