North Europeans lead healthier but shorter lives

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North Europeans are healthier and wealthier than their southern cousins, but people in Mediterranean countries live longer regardless, a European survey showed on Thursday.

An Italian newborn girl, for instance, is expected to live about two years longer than her Dutch counterpart. But about 14 percent of Italians aged over 65 live in poverty compared to just 2 percent in the Netherlands.

“There is a clear North-South gradient in health and income,” said Professor Axel Boersch-Supan, coordinator of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE).

"Older persons in the North are better off financially and are in better health, but this does not translate into corresponding mortality differences,” he said in a statement.

The main purpose of the survey was to give researchers and policy makers reliable data on a continent which has the highest proportion of older citizens in the world and which is set to see the average age of its citizens go on climbing.

About 16 percent of the population of the European Union’s 15 pre-enlargement member states are aged 65 or over, but many expect this to almost double to 28 percent by 2050.

This increase will place a heavy financial burden on societies through pay-as-you-go financed pension and health systems, compared to the present system in many countries where the working generation funds those who are retired.

The European Union-funded research project collected data on life circumstances of around 22,000 citizens aged 50 and over in 11 countries from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean.

The survey found a strong relation between health and socioeconomic status.

For instance, compared to those with a higher education, people with a standard education are 70 percent more likely to be physically inactive and 50 percent more likely to be obese.

The same link with socioeconomic status was found for mental health. The incidence of Alzheimer’s disease corresponds closely to differences in education, and depression is more frequent among people with low income or low wealth, particularly in the northern countries of Europe.

But the survey found a large gender gap for mental health in southern European countries, with huge depression prevalence rates among elderly women.

It also drew attention to major cross-country differences in health care systems. More than 80 percent of those surveyed in Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Greece reported some out-of-pocket health expenses in the previous 12 months compared to less than 45 percent in France, Spain and the Netherlands. 

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