Wealthier people live significantly longer

[Posted: Thu 23/12/2010 by Deborah Condon www.irishhealth.com]

People living in the most affluent areas of Ireland can expect to live up to six years longer than those living in the most deprived areas, new research from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has shown.

According to the statistics, the life expectancy at birth of males living in the most deprived areas is 73.7 years, compared with 78 years for those living in the most affluent areas. The corresponding figures for women are 80 and 82.7.

In other words, men in the most deprived areas can expect to live 6.3 years less than women in the most affluent areas.

The figures are based on an analysis of the people who died in the 12 months after the April 2006 Census was taken.

Aside from affluence, social class was also found be a ‘powerful predictor of life expectancy', with male professional workers having a life expectancy at birth of 81.4 years - that is 6.1 years higher than their unskilled counterparts.

Male managerial and technical workers had the second highest life expectancy (79.8 years), followed by skilled manual workers (78.7 years).

The situation for females was broadly similar with professional workers having the highest life expectancy (86 years) and unskilled workers the lowest (81 years).

Life expectancy was also correlated with educational attainment. For a 35-year-old male who had completed his full-time education, life expectancy increased from 41.3 years for those educated to primary level only to 46.9 years for those with a third level education.

For 35-year-old females, life expectancy increased from 45.6 years to 50.4 years.

Not surprisingly, life expectancy was lower for those with a long lasting disability or chronic health condition. In fact those with such a disability or condition had a mortality rate which was 3.5 times greater than those without a disability.

The statistics showed that among those over the age of 15, married people had the lowest mortality rate, while single people had the highest rate. Widowed, divorced and separated people were also found to have ‘relatively high mortality rates'.

On average, people living in urban areas had a higher mortality rate than their rural counterparts. Among urban areas, those living in Limerick city, including its suburbs, had the highest mortality rate, while those living in Dublin city, including its suburbs, had the lowest.

The research also noted that among the housing tenure categories, the mortality rate was lowest for those who owned their own homes. The mortality rate of people living in rented accommodation provided by local authorities or voluntary bodies was ‘significantly higher'.