The key to a healthy old age
Life expectancy in Switzerland has been steadily increasing for decades. But how do these years pass – in good health, or, conversely, do they only prolong the illness of an aging population? In an attempt to answer this question, researchers from the University of Geneva collected an array of data from various sources (the Swiss National Cohort, preventive examinations for the period from 1990 to 2015). The results show that although the life expectancy of the Swiss population as a whole is increasing, people who have not received an education after graduation live longer with poor health.
Between 1990 and 2015, the life expectancy of Swiss men increased from 78 to 82 years, women – from 83 to 86 years. The researchers described the principle of expanding morbidity, which means an increase in life expectancy due to an increase in the duration of the disease.
More than 11 million people have been tracked over 11 years
Demographers and medical sociologists have determined an increase in life expectancy in Switzerland using data from the Swiss National Cohort (SNC), which registers everyone who ever lived in Switzerland from 1990 to 2015. This made it possible to track the fate of more than 11,650,000 people, including migration movements and 1.47 million deaths. They then compared this information with data from preventive examinations that were carried out every five years between 1990 and 2015 to determine how many years of healthy life expectancy the Swiss population had gained over 25 years.
The researchers found that the number of "healthy" years increases in parallel with life expectancy at the national level. Comparing 1950 and 2015, the researchers showed that men began to live five years longer, including 4.5 years without diseases. Meanwhile, in women, the life expectancy with good health was three years.
The lower increase in life expectancy for women is due to the fact that they already live much longer than men.
The level of education plays a role in the increase in morbidity
The researchers divided the Swiss population from 1990 to 2015 into three categories, depending on whether they received compulsory school, secondary or higher education. It turned out that men who received only compulsory schooling did not have an increase in healthy life expectancy in the 2000s, it stopped at the level of 73 years. The healthy life expectancy of men with secondary education is continuously increasing and in 2010 reaches 78 years, and for men with higher education – 81 years. The difference in time spent in good health between men with compulsory schooling and men with higher education is 7.6 years in 1990 and 8.8 years in 2010.
Among women who received only compulsory schooling, life expectancy with good health declined slightly from 1990 to 1995, and then increased to 79 years in 2010. Women with secondary and higher education show the same curve of healthy life expectancy, which increases to 84 years. The difference between women with compulsory schooling and the rest is 3.3 years in 1990 and 5 years in 2010.
The gap between women with secondary and higher education is less pronounced, because the data cover women born in 1920-1930, when access to higher education was limited.
What are the reasons for this difference?
The differences between people with compulsory schooling and higher education can be explained by socio-economic inequality. People without proper education have a low income and therefore postpone or even refuse regular preventive examinations for as long as possible, because they are too expensive in Switzerland and are not covered by health insurance.
Article by A. Remund et al. Longer and healthier lives for all? Successes and failures of a universal consumer-driven healthcare system, Switzerland, 1990-2014 published in the International Journal of Public Health.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru according to the materials of the Université de Genève: Aging in good health: the deficiencies are widening.