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Health survey of elderly Europeans shows clear north-south differences

The EU-funded project SHARE ('Survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe') has shown, among other things, that women live longer than men, especially in southern European countries, and that men are not sick as often as women, especially in the North. The detailed resul...

The EU-funded project SHARE ('Survey of health, ageing and retirement in Europe') has shown, among other things, that women live longer than men, especially in southern European countries, and that men are not sick as often as women, especially in the North. The detailed results of the survey were presented last week in Brussels, and are freely available to the public. SHARE and its sister project, COMPARE, were funded approximately EUR 5.8 million in total under the EU's Fifth and Sixth Framework Programmes (FP5 and FP6) in the 'Quality of Life' and 'Citizens' Thematic areas respectively. Support was also provided by national funding agencies in Austria, Belgium, France and Switzerland, and in the US and Israel. The aim of SHARE was to provide reliable data on the life circumstances of elderly Europeans to researchers and policy makers in the fields of public health, economics and social sciences. Starting in 2004, data was collected from around 30,000 people aged 50 years or older in 15 European countries. Initially, the study focused on health, work, financial security, pension, family settings and relationships. 'A Swiss new born girl is expected to live almost four years longer than her Danish counterpart, and this difference is almost as large between Denmark and its neighbour Sweden. We need to understand what is hidden behind these striking differences (genetics, life styles, or health care provision?) in order to better understand human ageing. The SHARE data will contribute to this understanding,' reads the SHARE project report. In general, the results showed that in southern Europe people live longer but are ill more often than elderly people in northern European countries. Their northern counterparts are generally healthier and richer. In terms of general health, Danes, followed by the Swedes and Swiss, were found to be the most satisfied: 40% believe that they are not in the very best of health, and around 10% perceive themselves to be in poor or very bad health. Physical health problems such as cataracts are experienced more often by those aged 80 or over than by people aged between 50 and 59 years. Women report health problems more frequently than men; however, men suffer more often from potentially life-threatening illnesses such as diabetes or heart and lung diseases. Men were more likely to be overweight than women in all countries studied. The SHARE project looked at out-of-pocket payments for healthcare, health service utilisation and healthcare quality for older persons, and found much room for improvement. In particular, they found a serious lack of geriatric assessments (for example, asking about which drugs a patient is already taking) and screening tests, which shows a need for greater efforts in preventive medicine. The survey found that annual per capita public and private health expenditures range from about EUR 1,200 in Greece and Spain to almost EUR 3,000 in Denmark, but that there was not necessarily a correlation between expenditure share and life expectancy. Most disturbing, according to the report, is data showing below-average life expectancy and above-average healthcare expenditure in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. The SHARE report shows that throughout Europe, there is a strong connection between health (and health behaviour) and socio-economic status. Individuals with a lower level of formal education were 70% more likely to be physically inactive and 50% more likely to be obese than their more highly educated counterparts. This relationship between health and socio-economic status was also applicable for mental health: depression was more common in people with low income or low wealth, particularly in northern European countries. 'Prevalence of current depression rises with age in most SHARE countries and is higher among women than among men,' the report states. 'Particularly the southern European countries show a large gender gap with huge depression prevalence rates among elderly women.' 'SHARE has made great efforts to deliver truly comparable data, so we can reliably study how differences in cultures, living conditions and policy approaches shape the quality of life of Europeans just before and after retirement,' the report adds. SHARE represents much of Europe but does not include new EU Member States or the UK. The project will collect data from these countries in its next phase.

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