Probiotic milk drink producer Yakult has teamed-up with health and wellbeing charity Royal Voluntary Service (RVS) to launch ‘Stay Safe, Warm and Well,’ a guide to the winter months that offers useful advice and practical information to vulnerable people.
The downloadable guide includes advice on money saving, Covid, healthy eating and more.
Its publication follows new research from Yakult and RVS that revealed the extent that the cost-of-living crisis is taking on the people’s health and wellbeing. Fifty-two per cent of people surveyed identified not having enough money to live as their greatest fear and 85% also revealed that they are expecting the cost of living to have a negative impact on the life expectancy of older people.
Keeping warm was a major cause for concern amongst respondents, with 54% worried they will not be able to heat their home and 48% cutting back on home heating to save money. Nineteen per cent are reducing the number of hot meals they cook, a figure that rises amongst those with long-term health conditions (26%) and those that live alone (29%).
The research revealed that these concerns, a result of the cost-of-living crisis, are also having a significant impact on mental health, with 49% revealing their mental health has suffered as a result and are feeling anxious (48%) or depressed (42%) about facing the winter ahead.
