Slovenia Best EU Newcomer in Health Indicators
Slovenia is the best EU newcomer regarding life expectancy and several other indicators of health, according to the results of a study on eliminating inequalities in health in the EU that was presented in Ljubljana on Monday. Slovenia achieved the best results among the ten 2004 newcomers, but still lags behind the EU15.
While life expectancy at birth stood at 72.6 years in 2002 for men and 80.5 years for women, the figure in the EU stood at 76 years for men and 81.8 years for women. The average for the rest of the 2004 newcomers meanwhile stood at 69.2 years for men and 77.2 for women.
Among men, Swedes live the longest (77.7 years), while Latvia's men die aged 64.7 years on average. Spanish women meanwhile took the longevity crown with 83.2 years, whereas Romanian women are on the other end with 74.7 years.
Slovenia's men mainly die before their EU counterparts because of coronary and heart disease, cancer, and intentional and non-intentional injuries. Women in Slovenia meanwhile live shorter lives than their EU15 counterparts because of coronary and heart disease.
Data on mortality shows that every fourth Slovenian male aged between 20 and 64 could die before celebrating his 65th birthday, while every tenth Slovenian woman was at risk of passing on prematurely.
Slovenia recorded a relatively low number of deaths due to coronary and heart disease and cancer, however, recorded almost twice the average number of EU15 deaths due to injury, including traffic accidents.
In 2002, Slovenia was among the EU members with the highest number of suicides (49 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants among men and ten deaths per 100,000 citizens among women).
The country also recorded a relatively poor showing in alcohol-related deaths, especially due to liver cirrhosis. This comes despite halving the annual intake of alcohol per person between 1990 and 2003 (from 13.8 litres to 6.7 litres).
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