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ISR researcher Jose Tapia Granados discusses politics and longevity: www.ns.umich.edu/podcast/video2.php?id=1253
A U-M study finds that longevity increased faster under right-wing governments in southern Europe than under social democracies in the Nordic countries.
The study, published online in the peer-reviewed journal Social Science & Medicine, examined changes in longevity patterns in eight European countries from 1950-2000. The countries studied were Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Portugal and Spain.
The five Nordic countries were among the richest market economies in Europe during the period studied, governed mostly by center or center-left coalitions including social democratic parties, and offering generous, universal health and welfare benefits to their citizens. In contrast, the three southern European nations studied were among the poorest in Europe, with fragmented systems of welfare provision and many years of military or authoritarian right-wing rule.
“In spite of the socioeconomic and political differences, and a large gap in 1950 between the five Nordic and three southern nations in levels of health, by 2000 life expectancy at birth converged,” says Jose Tapia Granados, a researcher at the Institute of Social Research and the author of the study.
“Gains in longevity in Portugal and Spain were almost three times greater than gains in Denmark, and about twice as great as those in Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
“These findings raise serious doubts about the belief that the type of political regime and the level of health care spending exert major influences on population health.”
Identifying the causes of short- or long-term effects on population health is not an easy task, Tapia Granados points out. A number of possible factors could be responsible for the longevity gains in Spain, Greece and Portugal during the 50-year period studied. These include better hygienic practices, advances in education, generalized use of vaccines and antibiotics, improvements in sanitary infrastructures and enhancement of caloric intake. But since the Nordic countries were better off in all these factors, Tapia Granados notes, they cannot explain the faster advance in the southern countries.
A biological limit to human longevity could explain the convergence. However most demographers believe there is no such limit, Tapia Granados says.
The article suggests some factors that may explain why the five Nordic countries experienced slower gains in life expectancy. For instance, during the 1950s-’60s, tobacco consumption in Denmark was three or four times higher than in Spain and Portugal. Also, the Mediterranean diet of low-calorie, mainly vegetarian content prevalent in the southern countries also is known to promote health.
