Learn English – Use of decline for condition has got worse

grammarmeaning

I am trying to say that health difficulties have got worse – or the difficulties have increased:

I have long term health difficulties that have declined and are significantly impacting on…

Does it make sense to use the word declined?

Best Answer

No, I don't think so.

Declined here implies something has got lower, so although you would probably be understood, it is not correct without some context to say what exactly is declining. For example, a common phrase is his quality of life has declined, which implies quality of life is being measured, and that the measure is lower. But a health difficulty is not something that clearly goes up or down - is a lower difficulty better or worse than a higher difficulty?

Instead consider a word that means 'got worse' rather than 'got lower', like deteriorated:

to make or become worse or lower in quality, value, character; to wear away or disintegrate (Collins English Dictionary)

Even then, the subject of the phrase is 'long term health difficulties', and it is still not clear if a difficulty deteriorating is going away or what. Consider worsened for clarity.

I think some options are:

  1. I have chronic [medical] conditions which have deteriorated
  2. I have long term health difficulties which have worsened
  3. Deterioration in my health due to chronic medical conditions is significantly affecting...
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