The real reason Britons are more medicated than Danes

By Philip Broadbent, Wellcome Multimorbidity PhD Fellow & Public Health Registrar, University of Glasgow

It is tempting to tell a tidy story in which people in Britain take too many pills because they exercise too little and eat too poorly, while Danes stay slim by cycling everywhere. The assumption is that Britain relies on medication to fix lifestyle failures, whereas Denmark relies on prevention.

But are Britons actually more medicine-dependent than the Danes? The honest answer is yes and no.

When it comes to the more routine maintenance of getting older – managing the physical wear and tear of the body – the two countries prescribe…

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