The EU’s updated atlas of mortality has highlighted a continuing gender-divide across Europe but questioned how long it will continue.
The 2009 version of Health Statistics - Atlas on Mortality in the European Union concludes that the difference in male and female mortality remains significant. ‘Although there is a tendency at present for this gap to narrow in certain Member States, the difference nevertheless warrants separate treatment of female and male mortality,’ says the report.
However, this divide may not endure. The report concludes: ‘Differences in mortality between the genders are found for most of the causes of death, and the patterns of mortality according to gender and age vary from one Member State to another. Women seem more resilient to cancer and cardiovascular disease and to risk taking behaviour; they smoked less than men (although this converged in the EU-15), suffer less from alcohol related mortality, have less fatal transport accidents and commit far less suicide. However, converging smoking behaviour leads to convergence of historically the main cause of death in the EU, smoking related mortality, and to decreasing gender gaps in mortality.’
Health Statistics - Atlas on Mortality in the European Union is an update of a 2002 Eurostat publication, based on data for the years 1994-1996. Since then the number of European countries included has increased considerably. The new atlas includes 2002-2004 mortality data from National Statistical Authorities in the 27 Member States of the European Union plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Croatia, broken down by age and gender, by main causes of death and by 272 European regions.
In addition, the selection of causes of death and the selection of indicators for inclusion in this atlas have been revised, and differences in risk factors as a potential basis for differences of mortality profiles are described.
Confirming trends reported earlier this year in The Status of Health in the European Union report, the new report demonstrates that although mortality has declined strongly in all European countries over the last century, there are strong regional variations.
