OAPS death rate higher since slump
Study reveals rise for elderly women
IRISH women between the ages of 65 and 74 are dying at a higher rate since the recession.
A new study has found there has been a faster than expected spike for this group since 2014.
Two years later, 10% more females in this age bracket than expected under long-term patterns passed away compared to just 5% for men.
The research paper, published in this month’s Irish Medical Journal, examined the mortality rates between 1986 and 2008 when the global recession hit.
They measured them against Irish death rates of people aged from 65 to 84 during the five-year period from 2011 to 2016.
Co-author prof Jan Rigby, from Maynooth University, said: “Since 2014, it’s the female 65 to 74 year age group that has seen significantly more deaths than we would expect in [terms of] patterns of life expectancy.
“We would have expected fewer deaths if those longterm trends had carried on.”
The research paper titled Recession, Austerity And Life Expectancy investigated the effects of the global financial crash and the austerity policies introduced across Europe.
It examined life expectancy in 10 European countries and found rates in Ireland, Sweden and Denmark had stalled.
They are falling in the UK, Germany, France, Greece and Spain while Norway and Finland are continuing to see life expectancy rise. Prof Rigby said: “With life expectancy you normally expect it to increase about two years every 10 years and this has been going on since the 1950s, so it is a long, long-term trend and all of a sudden in this period, for some
countries, things have started to change. “It’s dramatic in the UK because their life expectancy has actually fallen as it has in the US.” news@irishmirror.ie