Half of Britons now have a long-term illness as experts warn UK 'sleepwalking into chronic disease nightmare'

And they say the stark figures point to a dangerous cocktail of poor diet, sedentary lifestyles, delayed diagnosis and untreated risk factors.

The data, covering 2024 and released last week, shows 46 per cent of adults aged 16 and over reporting at least one longstanding illness or condition, up from 35 per cent in 2012.

Women are most likely to be affected, with 48 per cent of females reporting at least one longstanding illness, compared with 44 per cent of males.

The survey, carried out as part of the National Health Service's annual Health Survey for England, also highlights the sheer scale of chronic pain across England.

More than a quarter of adults now report chronic pain, which is defined as pain experienced most days or every day in the past three months.

That includes 19 per cent of people aged 35 to 44, rising to 28 per cent among 45 to 54 year olds, and 36 per cent of those aged 55 to 64.

As many as 13 per cent of adults report “high-impact” chronic pain. These figures are likely to fuel concern NHS waiting lists for joint replacements and other procedures have left millions of people struggling to stay in employment, concentrate, or carry out everyday tasks.

It shows musculoskeletal conditions are the most common long-term illness, affecting 17 per cent of adults, including problems with joints, back pain and arthritis. Mental health conditions are the second most common, affecting 12 per cent of adults, followed by heart and circulatory conditions at 11 per cent. The data also shows nine per cent of adults have diabetes, while 8 per cent report long-term lung conditions, including asthma and chronic respiratory disease.

The survey also found 48 per cent of adults have raised cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. Professor Carl Heneghan, urgent care GP and Director of Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, said the figures reflected long-term public health trends.

He said: “We are sleepwalking into a chronic disease nightmare. Healthcare departments are no longer fit for purpose and I’m having to apologise to patients and telling them they have to wait in agony as I cannot get a scan for them in serious pain. We’ve had some wins with reducing smoking but this has been replaced with obesity and inactivity as well as poor diets and poor nutrition.

“Health services which have not kept pace with the burden of diseases. We need a proactive rather than reactive system.

“We are not looking forward to the next five years and how many cancers and how many hip operations and each year we flounder and then we blame winter viral illnesses for all our failings.“The NHS is failing year on year. Unless we fix this healthcare will consume such a big proportion of our budget there will be no room for essential services like education, the armed forces or welfare.”

He added reducing waiting lists should become an urgent priority, stating: “We managed to get a national task force for vaccines and test and trace and if we put our mind to it we could come up with solutions.”

Brett Hill, Head of Health and Protection at financial consultancy Broadstone, said the survey reflected what employers were seeing.

“Our concern is that both ends of the age spectrum are being hit: younger people struggling to access talking therapies for mental ill health and older people unable to get treatment for conditions like hip, knee and joint problems that directly affect their ability to work," he said.

“We now have the highest level of economic inactivity due to ill health in our history, and if employers cannot recruit a healthy workforce, they cannot grow their businesses, the economy cannot grow, and we cannot pay for the public services we need.”

He added: “The NHS was already struggling before the pandemic, but extended Covid lockdowns brought long-standing problems to the surface, particularly for younger people whose readiness to enter the workforce has been profoundly affected.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government inherited sky-high NHS backlogs – with far too many people suffering whilst waiting for treatment. That’s why one of our top priorities is getting waits back to the standards patients rightly expect.

“While there’s a long way to go, the health service is on the road to recovery. The latest NHS stats showed the second biggest drop in the overall waiting list for 15 years.

“We know living with chronic pain can have a significant impact on quality of life. Our shift from sickness to prevention will focus on earlier identification and management of chronic conditions, ensuring everyone receives high-quality, compassionate care.”

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