While adults today can expect to live longer than adults from previous generations, they are less healthy, a new study has shown.

Dutch scientists analysed data relating to over 6,000 people who were monitored for a number of years. The participants were divided into ten-year age groups, i.e. those aged 20-29, 30-39, 40-49 and 50-59.

The scientists wanted to assess whether one generation had better or worse health compared to the generation born 10 years before them.

The main health risk factors that were measured were weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. These are all established risk factors for heart disease.

The study found that overweight, obesity and high blood pressure increased with age in all generations. However, those born more recently had a higher prevalence of these risk factors compared to their counterparts born 10 years earlier.

For example, 40% of the men who were in their 30s at the start of the study were overweight, but 11 years later, the prevalence of overweight among the second generation of men in their 30s had risen to 52%.

The scientists described this as a statistically significant generational shift.

The study found similar unfavourable generational shifts when it came to diabetes in men, but not in women. The problem was also seen in relation to high blood pressure in both men and women.

"The more recently born adult generations are doing worse than their predecessors. The prevalence of metabolic risk factors and the lifelong exposure to them have increased and probably will continue to increase," the scientists warned.

They noted that if people are developing conditions such as obesity and high blood pressure at a younger age, then they will be exposed to these for a longer time than their predecessors.

They also pointed out that one of the reasons for greater life expectancy today is due to a reduction in the number of people smoking. However because of this, ‘we are likely to see a shift in non-communicable disease from smoking-related diseases, such as lung cancer, to obesity-related diseases such as diabetes'.

"This decrease in smoking prevalence and improved quality of healthcare are now important driving forces behind the greater life expectancy of younger generations, and it's likely that in the near future, life expectancy will continue to rise, but it's also possible that in the more distant future, as a result of our current trends in obesity, the rate of increase in life expectancy may well slow down," they added.

Details of these findings are published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.