PEOPLE in Britain spend more years suffering ill health than most other Europeans, according to research by the European Union.

The figures suggest that British women can expect 60 years of fit and active life. In Italy, the healthiest nation, they can expect to enjoy robust health until they are over 74.

Britons are living longer but the differences in life expectancy across Europe are relatively small. The far wider differences in quality of life are much more significant, researchers believe.

They emphasise that their findings are only provisional and their figures are only estimates. But they hope the study will encourage countries to focus healthcare on increasing the number of “healthy years” enjoyed by their citizens and not simply on extending lives.

Carol Jagger, professor of epidemiology at Leicester University and lead researcher on the EU study, said: “Life expectancies are going up for all countries but in terms of healthy life years, the UK is not keeping pace. The prevalence of disability is rising and that mirrors the fact that the prevalence of disease is rising.”

The research, based on questionnaires filled in by about 60,000 households around the EU each year, found British men can expect to live 76.2 years with an average of 61.5 years free of any disabling condition, which means that they spend just under 81% of their life in good health. This makes them the fifth unhealthiest men in the EU. The healthiest, Italians, spend 70.9 years in good health, equivalent to 92.3% of their lives.

Only Portugal, Finland and Hungary rank lower than Britain. British women live the fifth lowest number of years without a debilitating illness.

Because the figures are the first attempt by the EU at making such international quality-of-life comparisons, researchers have not yet been able to explore the reasons for the variation.

However, James Goodwin, head of research at Help the Aged in Britain, said part of the reason could be smoking and diet. “There are also differences like the way they organise access to doctors and healthcare in France and Germany, so you might expect older people there to have a better deal,” he added.

“And the weather may very well play a part. There is a decreasing trend in cardiovascular disease from north to south in Europe. There is a very great difference in climate — it is not just the Mediterranean diet . . . we don’t respect the cold in Britain or appreciate the risk to health.”

Sir John Grimley Evans, emeritus professor of clinical gerontology at Oxford University, said modern medicine was already making old age healthier, although reliable statistics were almost impossible to find. “I was in geriatrics for 30 years, and what struck me was how much healthier and more active older people are getting,” he said.

A report by the Mori Social Research Institute found that people in their seventies now are as active as people in their fifties were 20 years ago and are enthusiastic participants in sports and other outdoor activities.

Grimley Evans agreed that prolonging life expectancy was less important than delaying the onset of fatal disease. This would make it more likely people had brief final illnesses rather than long years of disability. “Live long, die fast,” he said.

Lord Healey, 88, the former chancellor, said he believed the EU figures were “vastly underrating” the health of Britain’s elderly. Healey, who had just been swimming in the pool at his Sussex home, said that as well as a hectic work schedule, he regularly went walking.

“I don’t feel the need to be active, I just enjoy it,” he said. “My wife and I both feel better when we are active.”

He added that he was not surprised Italy produced the healthiest old people. “In the old days the big division was the Iron Curtain. Now the most important division is the olive line.

“North of that line, where olives don’t grow and there is less sun, people are less happy and live less long. South of the olive line, it’s the opposite.”

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