With life expectancy on the rise across much of the world, conversations have turned to how societies can age healthily.  New research from the University of Geneva explores whether society is aging equally or whether there are distinct health inequalities influencing us as we age.

The researchers assessed data from the Swiss National Cohort (SNC) and the Swiss Health Surveys between 1990 and 2015, and found that while life expectancy for Swiss men rose from 78 to 82 years, and for Swiss women from 83 to 86 years, these gains were not spread across Swiss society, with clear discrepancies in the number of years spent in good health.

“The principle of morbidity expansion means that, yes, life expectancy is on the rise, but that these same individuals are spending more years in poor health before they finally die,” the researchers say.

Healthy years

As expected the number of healthy years grew largely in parallel with life expectancy when looked at at the national level.  The data showed that life expectancy for men grew by 5 years, with 4.5 of those years spent in good health.  For women, they gained three years, all of which were in good health.

The problem is, these trends were not consistent across the Swiss population.  The researchers divided the population into three groups according to their education, with groups for compulsory, secondary or tertiary levels.  When the data was crunched again under these parameters, a very different picture emerged.

“The data on men who have compulsory schooling shows that there was no increase in their healthy life expectancy in the 2000s: it stagnates at 73 years,” the researchers say.  “The difference in years spent in good health between men with compulsory education and men with tertiary education is 7.6 in 1990, but 8.8 years in 2010, showing that the gap is widening.”

The researchers believe that much of this difference can be explained by socio-economic inequalities, with these often resulting in people with lower incomes not checking in with their doctors frequently enough (if at all).  If they avoid the various screenings that are vital to the early detection of illnesses, then it can have severe repercussions.

“In fact, the less prevention there is, the less quickly the onset of chronic diseases can be detected, and the more rapidly our health deteriorates,” the authors conclude.