A medical expert has warned that the latest life expectancy figures show that Northern Ireland is “struggling” to keep its aging population in good health.

It comes as the latest Life Expectancy in Northern Ireland 2022-24 report, released on Tuesday, shows that both men and women in the north are experiencing less healthy and disability-free years – around a year less for both categories when compared to figures from 2021-23.

Overall, life expectancy at birth also continued on a slow growth trajectory noted in the past decade.

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Since 1980-82, life expectancy at birth has increased by 7.1 years for females and 9.6 years for males.

It currently sits at 78.8 for men and 82.6 for women – a gap of 3.8 years.

However, over the last ten years, life expectancy growth has slowed for males while the slowdown in female life expectancy has been evident over the last twelve years.

Higher mortality from circulatory diseases, cancer and accidental deaths contributed to almost three-quarters of the gap between male and female life expectancy in 2022-24.

By council area, life expectancy for men was highest in the Lisburn & Castlereagh at 80.5 years and lowest in Belfast at 76.5.

Similarly, women in Lisburn & Castlereagh and Fermanagh & Omagh have the highest life expectancy at 83.8 years, while those born in Belfast have the lowest at 80.5 years.

Men born in the 20% least deprived areas roughly maintained a gap of 7.2 years greater life expectancy over men born in the 20% most deprived areas.

This gap increased slightly for women, rising from 5.2 years to 5.5. The report says that in 2022-24, “males living in the 20% most deprived areas of NI could expect to live 74.6 years, 7.2 years less than those living in the 20% least deprived areas (81.8 years)”.

However, the most notable statistics were in the ‘Healthy and Disability-Free Life Expectancy’ with women faring worse than men.

The report states: “Over the last five years, Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) decreased for both males and females, however the change for males was not statistically significant.”

The statistics also show that female HLE decreased by 1.9 years from 62.1 years in 2018-20 to 60.2 years in 2022-24 and that over the same period, male HLE decreased by 0.8 years from 60.1 to 59.3 years “however this change was not statistically significant”.

Similar to HLE, female ‘Disability-Free Life Expectancy’ (DFLE) decreased over the last five years, by 2.4 years, from 59.0 years in 2018-20 to 56.6 years in 2022-2 and over the same period, male DFLE decreased by 1.2 years from 58.2 to 57.1 which again the report describes as “not statistically significant”.

The report also compares statistics between more or less socially deprived areas.

The report adds: “Between 2018-20 and 2022-24, the male HLE deprivation gap widened by 2.9 years from 12.0 years to 14.9 years. Over the same period, there was no notable change in the female HLE deprivation gap which stood at 14.6 years in 2022-24.

“The female DFLE gap between the most and least deprived males narrowed from 12.1 years in 2018-20 to 10.0 years in 2022-24. Over the same period, there was no notable change in the gap for males which stood at 11.8 years in 2022-24.”

Dr Alan Stout, chair of the British Medical Association’s Northern Ireland Council, said that the latest figures confirmed “what most people working in health and social care services have known for some time now”.

“We have a growing, ageing population, but we are struggling to keep them well,” he said.

“This is particularly reflected in the ‘healthy and disability-free life expectancy’ figures which are quite stark.

“We have also been acutely aware of the growing health inequality crisis as detailed in these figures for quite some time.”

He added that the “most concerning takeaway” was that it has been “predicted and highlighted in various HSC reports” over the past 15 years.

“It calls for an immediate change in our thinking, a change in our prioritisation and ultimately a change in how we plan and run our health and social care services to make a difference,” he said.

“We welcome the health minister’s plans to bring in a three-year budget from next year as this should allow for some breathing space to properly plan for future patient numbers.

“We also need to ensure we have enough staff to treat growing patient numbers, and that means valuing doctors with timely and adequate pay uplifts alongside targeted workforce planning.”

The Life Expectancy in Northern Ireland 2022-24 report defines ‘Healthy Life Expectancy’ as “the average number of years a person can expect to live in good health”.

It adds: “HLE provides an estimate of lifetime spent in ‘Very Good’ or ‘Good’ health, calculated using respondents’ perception of their own health according to the Health Survey Northern Ireland (HSNI).”