Physical activity should sit at the heart of the NHS's support for older people and be treated as no less important than medication, according to a report from the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee. The UK's population is ageing: in 2022 there were around 12.7 million people aged 65 or over, approximately 19 percent of the population, a figure expected to rise to 22.1 million (27 percent) by 2072. Yet gains in healthy life expectancy have stalled, and the average person is expected to live in good health only to age 61.
The report frames greater physical activity as a way to reduce frailty, falls, and the onset of multiple long-term conditions and, in doing so, to advance the government's objective of shifting the health system from treating illness toward preventing it. Among its recommendations, the committee calls for advice and social prescribing of physical activity to become a routine offer from GPs and other clinicians, for stronger links between NHS services and community and leisure providers, and for a national conversation to challenge negative stereotypes about ageing. Committee Chair Layla Moran MP noted that experts told the inquiry exercise can be more effective than medication for some conditions.
The report also highlights stark inequality in healthy life expectancy, from around 51 years in Blackpool to around 70 in Richmond upon Thames, linking its recommendations to the government's 10 Year Health Plan commitment to halve that gap.
