Health Inequalities in EU

Throughout the world huge differences in health exist. A girl born in certain countries can expect to live for more then 80 years, in other parts this life expectancy is only 45 years. These inequalities in health should not be tolerated.

These inequalities are avoidable. They are caused by the circumstances in which people grow, live, work and age. The health care system plays an important role. Social, political and economic forces influence these circumstances and conditions.

WHO, CSDH, Closing the Gap in a Generation (2008)

Although the overall level of health is improving across the EU, differences in health persist. These disparities exist in several domains and are evident from comparisons of various indicators, such as life expectancy at birth, healthy life years, and overall as well as infant mortality rates. Significant differences occur not only between the different Member States, but also within countries (COM(2009) 567 final).

Health differences in Europe

Large inequalities in health exist across the EU and this applies both to men and women. On average, citizens in the new Member States suffer a worse health status than the others. For example, between EU Member States, there is a 13.2 year gap in life expectancy at birth for men, an 8.2 year gap for women, and a 5-fold difference in death rates of babies under one year of age. While a man in Estonia spends up to 71% of his life in good health, a man in Denmark can expect to live 90% of his life in good health (Background doc COM(2009)567). The number of life years lost due to deaths that can be attributed to health inequalities in the EU is approximately 11.4 million.(Mackenbach JP et al (2007)).

Gradient

Although socially excluded and minority groups are particularly vulnerable, the differences in health and illness don’t just affect the worst off in society. People's health status diminishes together with their socio-economic status at each step of the ladder and this is referred to as the social gradient in health. Thus, health inequalities are a concern for the whole population, not just the least fortunate ones.