Mental health has overtaken cancer and obesity as the health problem most Britons worry about, a global survey has revealed.
Experts said the shift in the public’s perception reflected the sharp rise in recent years in mental ill-health caused by the Covid pandemic, the cost of living crisis and male violence against women.
The trend is revealed in a survey of what the public in 31 countries worldwide thinks about health and the healthcare they receive, undertaken by the pollsters Ipsos.
When the study began in 2018, exactly the same proportion of British participants – 50% – identified cancer, obesity and mental health as among the biggest health problems facing the country.
But mental health has moved up the rankings to become the illness that the most number of people (54%) in England, Scotland and Wales now say is a worry.
In comparison, obesity was only mentioned in this year’s edition of the research by 36%, while cancer was also cited by slightly fewer than before (49%), even though record numbers were being diagnosed.
Opinion globally has had an even more dramatic increase in the priority people give to mental wellbeing. In 2018, 27% of people in the 31 countries said it was a pressing health concern. But now 45% do so – more than any other illness.
Over the same time, though, the proportion of people mentioning cancer worldwide has fallen noticeably – from 52% to 38% – while the number citing obesity is also down, from 33% to 26%.
Cancer concerns have fallen despite a global rise in the number of people getting the disease, which is linked to the ageing population and to lifestyle factors such as bad diet, smoking and alcohol intake.
The trends represent a “fundamental shift in attitudes to mental health compared to 2018. Perhaps the pandemic’s biggest long-term effect on public health will be on mental heath,” Ipsos said.
The picture that emerges from its findings of a global population increasingly anxious about mental ill-health is underscored by a rise in those who see stress as a big health problem. The proportion citing it has risen from 12% to 17% in Britain and from 25% to 31% globally.
“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’, said Simon Atkinson, Ipsos’s chief knowledge officer. Globally, “the pandemic is still casting a long shadow”, he added.
Ipsos 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.
Andy Bell, the chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health thinktank, said 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”.
More than a million people in England are on a waiting list for NHS mental health care.
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. Similarly, younger people referenced it more than older generations, who were more likely to cite cancer.
“Women have higher rates of mental ill-health than men. Women are more likely than men to be living in poverty, and male violence heightens too many women’s risk of mental health difficulties,” Bell added.
Cancer’s sharp fall in public priority globally is a surprise. But that may reflect confidence that survival from many forms of the disease is increasing and that new treatments are emerging, such as immunotherapy, surgical advances and more precise types of radiotherapy.
Naser Turabi, Cancer Research UK’s director of evidence and implementation, said: “Thanks to decades of research into diagnosis and treatment, cancer survival in the UK has doubled over the last 50 years. But with cancer affecting nearly one in two of us in our lifetime, it remains a defining health issue and a key concern for people across the UK.”
