A global survey has revealed that mental health has surpassed cancer and obesity as the health issue that worries the majority of Britons.
Experts said the change in public perception reflects a surge in mental illness in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, rising costs of living and violence perpetrated by men against women.
The trend was revealed in a survey by polling company Ipsos on people’s attitudes towards health and access to healthcare in 31 countries around the world.
When the survey began in 2018, exactly the same proportion of British participants (50%) ranked cancer, obesity and mental health as among the biggest health issues facing the UK.
However, mental health has risen up the rankings, becoming the illness that most people (54%) worry about in England, Scotland and Wales.
In contrast, obesity was mentioned by just 36% of people in this year’s survey, and cancer was mentioned by just 49% of people, slightly lower than before, despite the fact that more people are being diagnosed with it than ever before.
Across the world, we’ve seen an even more dramatic increase in people prioritizing their mental health: In 2018, 27% of people across 31 countries said it was their most pressing health concern. Now, 45% say the same, more than any other illness.
However, over the same period, the proportion of people worldwide mentioning cancer dropped significantly from 52% to 38%, and the number mentioning obesity also fell from 33% to 26%.
The number of cancer cases worldwide is increasing, yet concern about it is decreasing. Cancer is linked to an ageing population and lifestyle habits such as unhealthy diet, smoking and alcohol consumption.
These trends represent a “fundamental shift in how we think about mental health compared to 2018.” “Mental health will likely be the biggest long-term public health impact of the pandemic,” Ipsos said.
The survey’s picture of people around the world becoming increasingly worried about mental illness is highlighted by the rise in people citing stress as a major health problem, rising from 12% to 17% in the UK and from 25% to 31% globally.
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“Here in the UK, there is growing recognition that mental health is a major concern, with 54% of Brits saying it is the most pressing health issue facing the country,” said Simon Atkinson, chief knowledge officer at Ipsos. Globally, “the pandemic still casts a long shadow,” he added.
Ipsos interviewed 23,667 people in 31 countries, including the US, Malaysia and India, in July and August, including a representative sample of 1,000 British people.
Andy Bell, chief executive of the Mental Health Centre think tank, said the growing concerns about health were unsurprising, saying: “The mental health of the population has deteriorated over the past decade, with rates of mental illness and referrals to mental health services increasing.”
More than one million people in England are on NHS mental health care waiting lists.
Ipsos research shows that in the UK and globally, women are much more likely than men to see mental health as a major concern. Globally, 51% of women mentioned mental health compared to just 40% of men. Similarly, younger generations were more likely to mention mental health than older generations, who were more likely to mention cancer.
“Women have higher rates of mental illness than men. Women are more likely to live in poverty than men and male violence increases the risk of mental illness for many women,” Bell added.
It is surprising that cancer has fallen sharply in public priorities worldwide, but this may reflect confidence in improving survival rates for many forms of cancer and the emergence of new treatments, including immunotherapy, advances in surgery and more precise types of radiation therapy.
Naser Turabi, director of evidence and implementation at Cancer Research UK, said: “Thanks to decades of research into diagnosis and treatment, cancer survival rates in the UK have doubled over the past 50 years. However, with almost one in two people affected by cancer in their lifetime, it remains a defining health issue and a major concern for people across the UK.”
