Cent Eur J Public Health 2009, 17(4):171-174 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a3531

Fall of the Iron Curtain: Male Life Expectancy in Slovakia, in the Czech Republic and in Europe

Emil Ginter1, Vladimir Simko2, Ladislava Wsólová1
1 Slovak Medical University, Bratislava, Slovakia
2 State University New York, Downstate Medical Center at Brooklyn, USA

Year 1989, the fall of communism, represents a dramatic watershed. Changes and reforms reflected also upon the quality of health care and the health of populations living on eastern side of the divide. Until then, Eastern Europe had free socialized medicine, albeit troubled by lack of up-to-date medications and absence of modern diagnostic equipment. Noting the admirable progress in health in some regions of the former Soviet empire during its transformation provides invaluable sociological lesson. Furthermore, focusing on health trends in two Central European countries, the Czech republic (CZ) and Slovakia (SK), brings about another quality to such evaluation. Dramatic improvement in the life expectancy (LE) is represented mainly in the decrease of cardiovascular mortality, more in the Czech Republic than in Slovakia. Favorable trend of male LE in the Czech Republic exceeded several established West European countries, while in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine the life expectancy actually deteriorated. When life expectancy in Slovakia is compared with the Czech Republic, its poorer outcome results from a higher cardiovascular mortality, as well as from liver, digestive and respiratory disorders. Root causes of this difference are possibly in a marked difference in funding of health care between SK and CZ, higher consumption of alcohol and cigarettes, as well as in a sizeable disadvantaged Roma minority in Slovakia.

Klíčová slova: life expectancy, change after 1989, cardiovascular mortality, Europe, Czech and Slovak republics, Roma minority

Vloženo: 25. listopad 2008; Revidováno: 27. březen 2009; Přijato: 27. březen 2009; Zveřejněno: 1. prosinec 2009  Zobrazit citaci

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Ginter E, Simko V, Wsólová L. Fall of the Iron Curtain: Male Life Expectancy in Slovakia, in the Czech Republic and in Europe. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2009;17(4):171-174. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a3531. PubMed PMID: 20377041.
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