Speaking to Today presenter John Humphrys, epidemiologist Professor Sir MichaelMarmot explained that, while heart disease rates have come down, the gap between rich and poor "has not narrowed".
Part of the evidence for that theory comes from the Whitehall study, a giant 20-year study of British civil servants conducted by Sir MichaelMarmot of University College, London.
The five-year decline for white women rivals the catastrophic seven-year drop for Russian men in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, said MichaelMarmot, director of the Institute of Health Equity in London.
MichaelMarmot, director of the Institute of Health Equity in London, told the Times that it rivaled the precipitous seven-year drop in life expectancy among Russian men in the turbulent years following the collapse of the Soviet Union.