[ad_1]
Nor can it be said that the average health status of Hungarians is particularly bright in an EU comparison, because, for example, only Latvian, Lithuanian, Bulgarian and Romanian men have a lower life expectancy at birth than men. Hungarians, and only Romanian and Bulgarian women have life expectancy in Hungary From the recent Labor Market Mirror publication of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
The publication of the Center for Economic and Regional Research (KRTK), which has been published annually since 2020 and examines the links between health and the labor market this year, also states that Hungarian men can expect good health only up to the age of 60 and Hungarian women up to 62 years.
In other words, mainly Hungarian men acquire at least one chronic disease before retirement age.
By contrast, in Ireland, Sweden and Malta, for example, both women and men are in good health up to the age of 70 and over. The significant difference is mainly due to the fact that in Hungary the state of health is below the EU average, especially among people with low educational level and people who do not work. He told the Index Judge Anikó, senior researcher at KRTK.
A Labor Market Mirror co-author adds
While, for example, Hungarian men with a degree are only four or five years at a disadvantage compared to Italian and Swedish men with a degree, Hungarian men without a high school diploma are twice as far behind.
Depression as a disease of Hungarian women
Judge Anikó emphasizes that in light of the new results of his investigation, it would be time to pay much more attention to mental illness. All of this is surprisingly supported by the outstanding values of the low-educated Hungarian women aged 45-54 in particular. Symptoms of depression, for example, are three times more common than among European women with similar scores.
Based on data on drug use at the national level, KRTK researchers also note that people with physical and mental illnesses work at a much lower rate in Hungary.
And the difference is more pronounced when taking prescription drugs for mental illness. Within this, the employment gap in the eastern part of the country is much larger.
Although we see differences of 1 to 4 percentage points in employment between those who can be considered healthy (who do not take a particular drug), the differences between patients (who take a drug) are much greater, ranging between 7 and 15 points percentage compared to Budapest. and the Northern Great Plain region.
However, this trend is not only true for people with mental illness. If someone is battling a chronic illness at home, they are less likely to work, according to the Labor Market Mirror’s findings.
The regional differences are again evident because a patient living in the eastern part of the country is even less likely to have a job.
Less healthy who does not work
In this context, the differences in mortality rates are also striking.
For example, in the age group over 75, the mortality rate of those living in the poorest settlements is 35% higher than that of those living in the richest settlements for men and 18% for men. women.
For people aged 45 to 54, the difference between the death rates of the poorest and richest settlements is almost two and a half times, while for those aged 55 to 64 it is roughly double.
All this, again placed in a European context, means that the employment opportunities of people aged 50 to 59 in Hungary with the best health and mental condition are the same as the European average, while the opportunities of those with the worst and worst condition are further and further away.
Therefore, in general, the unemployed tend to be less healthy than the employed. Of course, here we are talking mainly about first round numbers, trend and correlation analysis is already waiting for us.
– warns Judge Anikó.
But according to research, it is already likely that the phenomenon can be explained in two ways:
- non-workers are forced into or out of the labor market, in part due to their poorer mental and physical health;
- But it is also possible that work is associated with a more active and healthy lifestyle, which translates into better health outcomes.
Top image: A patient lies in his room at the Bács-Kiskun County Municipality’s Home for Psychiatric and Disabled Patients in Kiskunhalas. MTI / Photo: Sándor Ujvári
[ad_2]
