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Number of hospital admissions for stress and anxiety soars in decade

There's also been an increase in cases of work-related stress and anxiety

Sabrina Barr
Thursday 06 December 2018 10:27 GMT
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(Getty Images)

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The number of people in the UK being admitted to hospital for cases of stress and anxiety has soared in the past decade, new research has uncovered.

According to digital healthcare company Forth, more than a third of the British public is likely to feel stressed for a least an entire day every week.

The fast-paced and hectic nature of contemporary society has seemingly taken its toll on the mental health of many Brits, as outlined by new figures comparing the number of hospital admissions for stress and anxiety this year to a decade ago.

There has been a 28 per cent increase in the number of hospital admissions for stress and anxiety in the past decade, according to NHS data.

Of the number of patients being admitted to the NHS between 2017 and 2018 with mental health issues, 8.7 per cent of them had issues relating to stress and anxiety.

This marks a rise from a decade prior, with 6.9 per cent of mental health patients being admitted to the NHS with cases of stress and anxiety between 2007 and 2008.

The Office for National Statistics also highlights a rise in the number of cases of stress and anxiety at work, with 595,000 cases reported between 2017 and 2018.

This indicates an increase of 34 per cent of incidents of work-related stress and anxiety over the past decade.

In addition, last year 44 per cent of all work-related illnesses were connected to stress and anxiety, in comparison to 35 per cent 10 years ago.

Mahabis, a British slipper company, conducted the research of the healthcare data.

The company’s founder Ankur Shah believes that Brits would benefit tremendously from switching their smartphones off on occasion.

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“Stress and anxiety is now a problem that we - as individuals, and as a country - can’t afford to ignore,” he says.

“Increasingly, people are feeling that they can’t cope with the stresses of modern life, but at the same time they don’t feel they have permission to switch off.”

Last month, a survey conducted by BBC Radio 5 Live found that almost half of UK adults feel as though the stress of modern life has taken a toll on their sex lives.

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