Health is one of the most common IELTS topics. Writing Task 2 asks where governments should spend money, on treatment or on prevention; who is responsible for peopleās weight and habits, individuals or the state; and whether healthcare should be free for everyone. In Speaking Part 3, the examiner takes the topic further: why do people move less than a generation ago, and how will we look after our health in the future?
The biggest trap here is the word medicine. You want to say that healthcare costs nothing in your country, so you write In my country, medicine is free. But an English-speaking reader is more likely to hear āthe pills are freeā: medicine means a drug you take, or medicine as a science. The system that treats people is healthcare: free healthcare, the healthcare system. The topic has several traps like this: in English you take medicine, you donāt drink or eat it, and the note from your doctor is a prescription, not a recipe. Below are 29 collocations that work in essays and Speaking answers, the mistakes that give away word-for-word translation and an example of how LetsWords gives feedback on a sentence you write yourself.
This page is part of our IELTS vocabulary by topic guide. Food and sport have their own pages, Food and Sport; this one covers lifestyle, illness, healthcare systems and mental health.
Health: words and collocations
Lifestyle and prevention
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| lead a healthy lifestyle | live in a way that keeps you healthy | People who lead a healthy lifestyle in their thirties are far less likely to need expensive treatment later. |
| a sedentary lifestyle | a way of life with very little physical activity | Office work has made a sedentary lifestyle the norm for millions of adults. |
| take regular exercise | be physically active on a regular basis | Doctors advise patients to take regular exercise, even if it is only a brisk walk. |
| maintain a healthy weight | keep your weight at a healthy level | Walking or cycling to work is one of the easiest ways to maintain a healthy weight. |
| cut down on | eat, drink or use less of something | Many people would cut down on sugar if food labels were easier to read. |
| pose a risk to health | be dangerous to health | Long working hours without proper breaks pose a real risk to health. |
| a public health campaign | a campaign to improve the health of the population | A public health campaign can warn teenagers about smoking long before they try it. |
| preventive healthcare | care that stops illness before it starts | Investing in preventive healthcare is cheaper than treating diseases once they have developed. |
Illness and treatment
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| suffer from a chronic illness | have a long-lasting disease | Older people are more likely to suffer from a chronic illness such as diabetes. |
| come down with | catch an illness such as a cold or flu | Half of the team came down with flu in the same week. |
| recover from | get better after an illness or operation | It took her several months to fully recover from the operation. |
| undergo treatment / surgery | be treated / have an operation | Patients who undergo surgery need time and support before they return to work. |
| prescribe medication | officially tell a patient to take a medicine | Doctors sometimes prescribe medication when a change of habits would be enough. |
| side effects | unwanted effects of a drug | Like any drug, this medication can have unpleasant side effects. |
| life expectancy | how long people are expected to live on average | Life expectancy has risen sharply over the past century thanks to vaccines and clean water. |
| infectious diseases | diseases that spread from person to person | Mass vaccination has made many infectious diseases rare in developed countries. |
The healthcare system
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| the healthcare system | the organisation of medical services in a country | Most citizens rely on the public healthcare system rather than private clinics. |
| access to healthcare | the ability to get medical care | People in remote villages often have limited access to healthcare. |
| free at the point of use | free for the patient when they receive care | In the UK, most NHS treatment is free at the point of use and paid for through taxes. |
| put a strain on | put heavy pressure on | An ageing population puts a strain on hospitals and care homes. |
| waiting lists | lists of patients waiting for planned treatment | Long waiting lists push some patients towards private clinics. |
| private health insurance | insurance that pays for private medical care | Private health insurance gives faster access to specialists, but not everyone can afford it. |
| healthcare workers | doctors, nurses and other medical staff | Healthcare workers deserve better pay for the pressure they work under. |
| see a doctor | visit a doctor about a health problem | If the pain lasts more than a few days, you should see a doctor. |
Mental health
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| mental health | psychological and emotional wellbeing | Schools are paying more attention to studentsā mental health than they used to. |
| be under a lot of stress | feel a lot of pressure | Students are under a lot of stress in the months before final exams. |
| suffer from burnout | be exhausted by long-term stress, usually from work | Nurses who regularly work double shifts often suffer from burnout. |
| seek professional help | go to a specialist for help | Many people still feel embarrassed to seek professional help for anxiety. |
| cope with | deal successfully with something difficult | Regular exercise helps people cope with stress at work. |
Common mistakes
In my country, medicine is free for everyone.
Correct: In my country, healthcare is free for everyone.
Medicine is a drug or the science of medicine (modern medicine). Free medical care is free healthcare; to stress that patients donāt pay when they receive treatment, say free at the point of use.
I drink these pills twice a day.
Correct: I take these pills twice a day.
In many languages, you ādrinkā or āeatā medicine. In English, you take it: take medicine, take pills. Keep drink for things you actually drink, like water.
The doctor gave me a recipe for antibiotics.
Correct: The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics.
A recipe tells you how to cook a dish. The note from your doctor is a prescription, and the verb is prescribe.
Smoking can damage the health. She has a good health.
Correct: Smoking can damage your health. She is in good health.
Health is uncountable and usually takes no article. To describe someoneās condition, say be in good health; for harm, say damage your health or be bad for your health.
How LetsWords explains mistakes like these
Mistakes like these are almost invisible to the person who makes them: drink pills and a recipe from the doctor sound natural if thatās how youād say it in your own language. Thatās why LetsWords catches them in sentences you write yourself. Hereās what one task looks like.
Youāre reviewing put a strain on. LetsWords shows you a hint in your native language meaning āput pressure onā. You recall the English expression and write a sentence about healthcare:
An ageing population makes a big strain for hospitals.
The feedback explains two mistakes:
- makes ā puts: the general verb make doesnāt go with strain. The collocation is put a strain on hospitals;
- for hospitals ā on hospitals: pressure is put on something; for means āfor the benefit ofā and changes the meaning.
An ageing population puts a big strain on hospitals.
LetsWords explains each correction in your native language: Russian, Korean or Vietnamese. A few days later, the expression comes back in review, and you use it in a new situation, for example in a Speaking answer about stress at work. Thatās how a collocation from a list becomes one you recall from memory and write without mistakes.
Start practising with feedback on your mistakes
When you sign up, you choose IELTS as your goal and your level, and LetsWords picks the right practice for you. You can try the feedback before you pay.
Using these collocations in Writing Task 2
An exam-style task:
In many countries, most of the health budget is spent on treating diseases rather than preventing them. Some people think governments should move this money towards prevention. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
A body paragraph:
Shifting funds towards prevention would, in my view, make the whole system more sustainable. Many of the conditions that fill hospital wards today, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, are closely linked to a sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits. If governments ran public health campaigns about these risks and made it easier for people to take regular exercise, fewer citizens would suffer from a chronic illness in middle age. This, in turn, would shorten waiting lists and ease the strain on the healthcare system, freeing doctors to focus on patients who genuinely need complex treatment. Prevention, therefore, is not an alternative to treatment but the most realistic way to keep treatment affordable.
Why the paragraph works. Itās built around one idea: prevention reduces the pressure on the system. Each sentence moves the chain of cause and effect forward, from an inactive lifestyle to chronic illness, waiting lists and overworked doctors, and the linkers in turn and therefore make the logic visible. The collocations stand where you would otherwise need a long description; they arenāt there to chase a higher score. The IELTS Writing band descriptors for Band 7 in Lexical Resource say: An awareness of style and collocation is evident. Accurate collocations are exactly what the examiner notices. Notice what the paragraph doesnāt have, too: rare words used just to impress.
Using them in Speaking
A Part 3 question: Should individuals or governments be mainly responsible for peopleās health?
Iād say itās a shared responsibility, but individuals carry most of it. Nobody can force you to take regular exercise or cut down on sugar. That said, the state sets the conditions: if healthy food costs twice as much as junk food, or you canāt see a doctor without waiting three weeks, willpower only goes so far. So governments should make the healthy choice the easy one.
A conversational register suits Speaking (Iād say, That said, only goes so far), and the topic collocations (take regular exercise, cut down on, see a doctor) come from the same tables you use for essays.
Practise for free
- take medicine: you take pills, you donāt drink them;
- recipe: instructions for a dish, not a doctorās prescription;
- ill vs sick: how to say someone is unwell, and where learners go wrong;
- pain, ache or hurt: three ways to talk about pain;
- cut down on: eat, drink or use less;
- raise awareness: help people learn about a problem;
- physician: a doctor, not a physicist.
Youāll find other exam topics in our IELTS vocabulary by topic guide.
From the list to real use
Reading that free medical care is free healthcare is easy. Writing it in the exam, when your hand reaches for medicine on its own, is a skill. Move from the list to real use with LetsWords: practise with the IELTS set for your level and add collocations from this page to your collection, for example lead a healthy lifestyle or access to healthcare. You recall each expression from a hint, write a sentence with it, and LetsWords points out the mistake and explains it in your native language, while spaced repetition brings the expression back until it feels natural. Then test the vocabulary in a full text: the IELTS Writing section has Task 2 questions on health, about lack of exercise, unhealthy eating, health apps and who is responsible for peopleās health, and a full answer gets detailed feedback on all four criteria, tied to what you wrote. When you sign up, you answer a few questions about your goal and level, and LetsWords picks the right practice for you. You can try the feedback before you pay.