New Member States’ health risk

Date: 03/06/04

CITIZENS from all the ten new member states, bar Malta, have a bigger prospect of falling seriously ill before they reach 70 than their counterparts from the old EU-15.

That is the grim prognosis from a new study, due to be launched in Brussels this Friday (4 June).

Commissioned by the World Health Organization, the 314-page report examines health trends in the enlarged Union, as well as budding EU states Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.

It examines the EU using an indicator called health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE).

Using this measurement, the average HALE for the old EU is 70 years, with Malta the only one of the new entrants exceeding it.

The worst health levels were recorded in Latvia, Lithuania and Turkey, all of whom have a HALE of less than 60 years. The remaining countries are in the 60-70 years bracket.

HALE is a prediction of the number of years "in full health" that a newborn infant can expect to live, based on current rates of death and disease.

The study also finds:

• High levels of heart disease in central and eastern Europe are due to the "usual risk factors" such as fat consumption and smoking but differences in health care quality may also play a part;
• the drinking of strong alcohol - eg vodka - in bouts is a major worry in the Baltic countries;
• alcohol also has a role in how the Baltic states have a "much higher" rate of road accidents than in the old EU-15, and;
• while rates of HIV infection are still low "in global terms", they are "rising extremely quickly" in many central and eastern European states.

Malta bucks the trend of the new countries, though. In particular, it has the second highest rate of male life expectancy in the EU.

Yet its pattern of mortality for both sexes combined resembles that of the UK, a factor that may be explained by the popularity of a British-style diet on the Mediterranean island.

Feature on a WHO report on health trends in the enlarged EU, issued 4 June 2004.

• Primary Source

http://www.euro.who.int/document/E82999.pdf http://www.euro.who.int/document/E82999.pdf

http://www.euro.who.int/en/who-we-are/partners/observatory/studies/old-abstracts/health-in-the-european-union-trends-and-analysis http://www.euro.who.int/en/who-we-are/partners/observatory/studies/old-abstracts/health-in-the-european-union-trends-and-analysis

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