Americans are sicker than Brits

n England, 7.8% of people in the highest income bracket had heart disease, whereas 12.0% of the same group in the US had heart disease, according to the survey data. The lowest income groups in England and the US had heart disease rates of 11.6% and 17.1%, respectively.

The analysis also suggests that while about 6.1% of adults in England suffer from diabetes, the illness affects 12.5% of US adults.

“We really did not expect there to be that big a difference,” says James Smith of the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, US, who co-authored the study. England was chosen because its population was expected to share many characteristics with that of the US.