PruHealth claims in a new report that stress levels have gone through the roof over recent months due to the stormy financial climate.
The economic downturn has had an effect on consumers' health as well as their finances - with stress levels soaring over recent months according to one report.
Insurance firm PruHealth polled members of the public on the lifestyle changes they had made over the last six months. Since late last year, the economy has gone into recession, unemployment has spiked above two million, house prices have continued to fall and credit remains hard to come by for consumers.
These bleak financial conditions have filtered through into increased stress levels - around half of all Britons are thought to be more stressed now than they were before. Meanwhile, the number of people who are leading what the insurer terms an "unhealthy" lifestyle, including eating badly and exercising too little, has spiked to 18 percent, an increase of two million over six months.
Money worries, job loss fears and the erosion of wealth for homeowners are all thought to have contributed to the trend. PruHealth said that Britons have been left "overwhelmed, overwrought and overweight" by the financial climate.
Commenting on the report, Dr David Grainger, senior fellow at Cambridge University, said: "In just six months there has been a marked widening of the 'health gap’' as lifestyle improvements evaporate… these findings suggest a staggering two million more people have an unhealthy lifestyle than six months ago.
"The most likely cause? Economic recession."
