From Susi Arnott, London, UK
Devi Sridhar’s take on public health initiatives as key to longer, more enjoyable lives, rather than individual striving, brought to mind an important project in south London. Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ hospitals use any and all interactions with patients to look at their ““: key burdens of disease that, if addressed, can shrink “privilege gaps” in healthy life expectancy. Even just asking about these – use of tobacco and alcohol, weight, blood pressure and mental health – can have an impact, but getting a baseline enables tracking and improving metrics over time, with a positive impact on well-being and healthy life expectancy(5 July, p 38).
