News & Notes: Americans have worse health than people in England

Surveying data from almost 40,000 U.S. residents and 70,000 English residents, researchers found that Americans exhibit higher rates of most chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes and asthma, as well as indicators of disease such as high cholesterol and obesity.

The results held even when the researchers controlled for factors such as income, weight, insurance, smoking habits and drinking habits.

The results applied to children as well as adults.

Only 41 percent of Americans over the age of four have a normal weight compared to over 50 percent of English residents in the same age bracket.

While over 13 percent of Americans of all ages have asthma, only 6.5 percent of people in England have it.

Mauricio Avendano, a research fellow at Harvard, wrote in The editorial accompanying the study that the results are particularly notable considering that Americans represent more than half of every medical dollar spent, despite making up only 5 percent of the population.

High blood pressure was the only disease or disease indicator that was more prevalent among the English than American males at young ages.

The study is being published in this month’s issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.