Interview - Lifestyle 'source of health inequalities' Published: Tuesday 23 October 2007
, which studied health inequalities between the EU-15 and the ten new eastern member states.
What are the main results of your project?
We found out what we expected, which is that huge gaps in health exist between eastern and western countries. This gap is characterised by a much higher mortality rate for CDV [cardiovascular] diseases in eastern European countries. This is certainly very strongly connected to access to related medical services but also to lifestyle factors. Tobacco smoking, diet and alcohol seem to be essential factors with regard to decreasing mortality from CDV diseases.
The second big problem in eastern Europe, especially in the Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia), or the EU 3, is death from injuries. This is not connected to any medical conditions, so you can't improve the situation by improving the health infrastructure or better access to medicine. This is connected to social policy, safety, regulation of alcohol control and education of people. These countries have a huge burden coming from injuries. We need to have some country-specific programmes to control this problem.
One of the big challenges in the EU is alcohol policy. Drinking patterns vary a lot across the EU, from modest regular consumption to occasional binge drinking. There are some studies that show that a modest regular intake of alcohol is good for your health but binge drinking until intoxication is always harmful for health, in particular with regard to injuries but also CDV diseases.
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