Life expectancy across European countries, including Greece, is stalling, with experts blaming this on an alarming mix of poor diet, mass inactivity and soaring obesity, according to research published in the Lancet Public Health journal.
The study, led by the University of East Anglia, examined changes in life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. Of the 20 countries studied, every one except for Norway saw life expectancy growth falling, while England has been experiencing the biggest slowdown.
The average annual growth in life expectancy across the continent fell from 0.23 years between 1990 and 2011 to 0.15 years between 2011 and 2019. England suffered the worst decline, with Northern Ireland recording the second biggest slowdown of life expectancy, followed by Wales and Scotland.
Between 1990 and 2011, according to the study, a decrease in deaths from heart disease and cancer has led to a growth of life expectancy across all European countries, including Greece. However, since 2011 life expectancy growth has slowed down. During the covid pandemic, all countries except Ireland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Belgium experienced a decline in life expectancy. However, Greece, along with England, recorded the greatest decreases with -0.61 and -0.60 years respectively.
“Advances in public health and medicine in the 20th century meant that life expectancy in Europe improved year after year, but this is no longer the case,” lead researcher Professor Nicholas Steel, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, told The Guardian. “We found that deaths from cardiovascular diseases were the primary driver of the reduction in life expectancy improvements between 2011-2019. Unsurprisingly, the Covid pandemic was responsible for decreases in life expectancy seen between 2019-2021.”
The study further notes that European countries need government policies in order to improve population health. Such policies, according to the study, include reducing population exposure to major upstream risks for cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms, such as harmful diets and low physical activity, tackling the commercial determinants of poor health, and ensuring access to affordable health services.
Is Human Life Expectancy Reaching Its Limit as Growth Slows Down?
A recent study revealed that life expectancy is not growing as quickly as it did in the last century across 10 wealthy countries.
The paper, released on October 7 in the journal Nature Aging, predicts that people may only live about 2.5 years longer over the next 30 years.
The study’s authors suggest that the slowdown is likely because humans may be nearing the natural limit of how long they can live. As more people reach older ages, the main causes of death are tied to aging itself—the slow breakdown of cells and tissues over time.
While medical advances can prevent diseases like measles in children, there’s no way yet to halt the aging process as people reach 60, 70 and older.
Jay Olshansky, the lead author of the study and a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, compares fighting age-related diseases one by one to applying a “temporary survival Band-Aid.”
Efforts to find treatments or cures for conditions like Alzheimer’s or cancer may help people live longer. However, Olshansky points out that these approaches only allow people to reach older ages without addressing the core problem: aging itself.