Brits are healthier than Americans.
Brits are healthier than people in the US
A new study involving thousands of people aged in their 30s and 40s from both sides of the Atlantic found that adults in the US were more likely to have high cholesterol and high blood pressure, whilst 40 per cent of people in the States were obese compared to just 34.5 per cent of Britons.
However, Brits (18 per cent) were more likely than their American counterparts (12 per cent) to report their health as poor.
Experts at University College London (UCL) say that the contrast between the two nations could be "down to levels of exercise, diets and poverty, and limited access to free healthcare" and stress the importance of the NHS "safety net" in the UK.
Dr. Charis Bridger Staatz, of the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, said: "Given political and social similarities between the US and Britain, the US acts as a warning of what the state of health could be like in Britain without the safety net of the NHS and a strong welfare system."