More than 5,000 adults in the US in their 30s and 40s and over 10,000 Britons participated in the study conducted by researchers from the University of Oxford, Syracuse University, University of North Carolina, and UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies.
According to the study, adults in the US had higher rates of high blood pressure and cholesterol than adults in the UK, and 40% of Americans were obese, compared to 34.5% of Britons.
However, 12% of US adults and 18% of British adults said they were in bad health.
Additionally, 28% of Britons smoked every day, compared to 21% of the US cohort.
According to the researchers, the US’s health “acts as a warning” about what would happen in Britain if the NHS “safety net” were to disappear.
According to Dr. Charis Bridger Staatz of the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, “levels of exercise, diets and poverty, and limited access to free healthcare” could be the cause of the disparities in health between the two nations.
