European Health Levels Suddenly Collapsed After 2003 and Nobody Is Sure Why

KentuckyFC writes "Europeans are living longer. But since 2003, they've suddenly enjoyed fewer years of healthy life. For example, in Italy between 1995 and 2003, life expectancy increased from 75 to 80.1 for men and from 81.8 to 85.3 for women. At the same time, the number of years of healthy life increased from 66.7 to 70.9 for men and from 70 to 74.4 for women. But since 2003, while life expectancy has increased further, the number of years of healthy living has plummeted to about 62 for both sexes. More worrying still is that demographers say the same trend has been repeated right across Europe. Only the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands appear to have escaped. That raises an obvious question: what happened in 2003? One idea is that the weather is to blame. In 2003, Europe experienced an extreme heat wave that led to some 80,000 extra deaths across the region. And the higher temperatures could also have triggered ill health, particularly in older people suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes. That has important implications for governments who have to pay for health costs in Europe. And it raises the possibility that climate change is already having a bigger impact on human health than anyone imagined."

Increased immigration...

[Man On Pink Corner]

... of less healthy people, who probably experienced more malnutrition and disease in childhood, might explain it.

More likely it's just a bug in the survey's methodology.

Re:Heat wave discouraged exercise?

[tsa]

Not only older people. When I was young we used to play with Lego in the winter and be outside when it was warm. Many of today's youth just play computer games all day long, on their playstations or what have you and outside on their phones. They only move their thumbs.

The great depression?

[CastrTroy]

Could it be related to The Great Depression? Somebody who lived until they were 85, and died between 2003 and 2013 would have been born between 1918 and 1928. Basically, they would have been quite young during the great depression. I wonder if something like this could have big effects so much later in life. It's mostly likely that, or possibly that a lot of them ended up being veterans of the war, as they would have been around 15-25 years old when the second world war was going on. I'm sure there's some very reasonable explanation why this group of people aren't living so many healthy years.

Re:Do some more studying

[Anonymous Coward]

Feel free to read any one of the scientific papers on how the temperatures in Europe were equal to or higher than todays ~1000 years ago.

(And, for that matter, ~2000 and ~3000 years ago as well. You'll know these as the Medieval Warm Period, the Roman Warm Period and the Bronze Age Warm Period)

http://www.clim-past.net/8/765/2012/cp-8-765-2012.html [clim-past.net]
http://hol.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/10/26/0959683612460791.abstract [sagepub.com]
http://www.wsl.ch/fe/landschaftsdynamik/dendroclimatology/Publikationen/Esper_etal.2012_GPC [www.wsl.ch]

Or just deny the science and, like the article, repeat activist mantras - no matter the factual content.

Re:Do some more studying

[mikael]

Most of Europe is Agrarian where land is dominantly used for agriculture. Countries like France. There was the introduction of a pesticide ban in 2003/2004 - The Rotterdam Convention
http://www.pan-europe.info/Archive/Banned%20and%20authorised.htm [pan-europe.info]

The Convention entered into force on 24 February 2004 and became legally binding for its Parties. Perhaps the replacement chemicals were worse than the original ones that were banned.

Re:Facebook

[poetmatt]

Nah, that's productivity levels. Wouldn't it more likely be McDonalds?

Or "Austerity"

[rsilvergun]

which as near as I can tell is code for Wealth Inequality. Around 2003 the rich made a major money grab, netting the biggest gains in history while saddling everyone else with massive debt. You've probably got a lot of Europeans putting in American style 60 hour (high stress) work weeks. They're also probably drinking more sugary caffeinated drinks to cope with the extra workload needed to keep their heads above water while their wages plummet.

So basically, cut peoples standard of living through a program of massive wealth transference to the top 1% and their life expectancies go down. Who knew?

Re:Are they fatter?

[dave420]

Of course it can. Socialized health care means there is an incentive to develop and use preventative medicine, which is something that can greatly help obesity, and drug addicts can be treated regardless of whether they have insurance or not (because they do). In some countries heroin addicts, for example, can get free heroin. That saves the country money as these people no longer have to go robbing people to earn cash, saving police costs and distress.