Summary: A new study finds that life expectancy improvements across Europe have slowed significantly since 2011. Key factors include rising obesity, poor diets, and physical inactivity, along with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Deaths from cardiovascular diseases played a major role in this decline, particularly in the UK.
Countries with strong public health policies, such as Norway and Sweden, maintained better life expectancy trends. The findings suggest that lifestyle changes and bold government interventions are crucial to reversing this trend. Without action, younger generations may not live as long as their predecessors.
Key Facts:
- Cardiovascular Disease Impact: A major driver of slowed life expectancy gains since 2011.
- Health Risks Rising: Obesity, poor diet, and physical inactivity are increasing across Europe.
- Policy Matters: Countries with stronger health policies showed better resilience.
Source: University of East Anglia
The rise in human life expectancy has slowed down across Europe since 2011, according to research from the University of East Anglia and partners.
A new study, published today in The Lancet Public Health, reveals that the food we eat, physical inactivity and obesity are largely to blame, as well as the Covid pandemic.
Of all the countries studied, England experienced the biggest slowdown in life expectancy.
It means that rather than looking forward to living longer than our parents or grandparents, we may find that we are dying sooner.
The team says that in order to extend our old age, we need to prioritise healthier lifestyles in our younger years – with governments urged to invest in bold public health initiatives.
Lead researcher Prof Nick Steel, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “Advances in public health and medicine in the 20th Century meant that life expectancy in Europe improved year after year. But this is no longer the case.
“From 1990 to 2011, reductions in deaths from cardiovascular diseases and cancers continued to lead to substantial improvements in life expectancy.
“But decades of steady improvements finally slowed around 2011, with marked international differences.
“We found that deaths from cardiovascular diseases were the primary driver of the reduction in life expectancy improvements between 2011–19. Unsurprisingly, the Covid pandemic was responsible for decreases in life expectancy seen between 2019–21.
“After 2011, major risks such as obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol either increased or stopped improving in almost all countries.
“Better cholesterol and blood pressure treatments have not been enough to offset the harms from obesity and poor diets,” he added.
The research team studied data from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME)’s Global Burden of Disease 2021 – the largest and most comprehensive research to quantify health loss across places and over time, drawing on the work of nearly 12,000 collaborators across more than 160 countries and territories.
They compared changes in life expectancy, causes of death, and population exposure to risk factors across Europe between 1990–2011, 2011–19, and 2019–21.
Countries studied included Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
The team say that despite the downturn, we still haven’t reached a biological ceiling for longevity.
Prof Steel explained: “Life expectancy for older people in many countries is still improving, showing that we have not yet reached a natural longevity ceiling.
“Life expectancy mainly reflects mortality at younger ages, where we have lots of scope for reducing harmful risks and preventing early deaths.
“Comparing countries, national policies that improved population health were linked to better resilience to future shocks.”
“Countries like Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, and Belgium held onto better life expectancy after 2011, and saw reduced harms from major risks for heart disease, helped by government policies.
“In contrast, England and the other UK nations fared worst after 2011 and also during the Covid pandemic, and experienced some of the highest risks for heart disease and cancer, including poor diets.
“This suggests that stronger government policies are needed to reduce major health risks including obesity, poor diet, and low physical activity – to improve population health over the long term.”
Prof John Newton, from the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at the University of Exeter, said: “These results are a cause for concern especially here in the UK, but also some hope. We should be concerned because many European countries including the UK are showing such poor progress but hopeful because addressing the underlying causes of major illnesses appears to be effective if only improvements in the key risks can be sustained.”
Sarah Price, NHS England, National Director of Public Health, said: “This important study reinforces that prevention is the cornerstone of a healthier society, and is exactly why it will be such a key part of the 10 Year Health Plan which we are working with Government on.
“The slowdown in life expectancy improvements, particularly due to cardiovascular disease and cancer, highlights the urgent need for stronger action on the root causes — poor diet, physical inactivity, and obesity.
“The NHS is playing its part and has already helped hundreds of thousands of people to lose weight through our 12-week digital Weight Management Programme, while more than a million people a year receive a blood pressure check in NHS pharmacies which are key to identifying cardiovascular issues and significantly improving people’s overall health.
“However, more can action is need across society because we cannot treat our way out of the obesity crisis, and we need to stem it at source.”
This study was led by UEA in collaboration with the Global Burden of Disease Project at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, the University of Exeter and the Department of Health and Social Care, among others.
The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the UK Department of Health and Social Care.
About this health and longevity research news
Author: Lisa Horton
Source: University of East Anglia
Contact: Lisa Horton – University of East Anglia
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Changing life expectancy in European countries 1990–2021: a sub analysis of causes and risk factors from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021” by Nick Steel et al. Lancet Public Health
Abstract
Changing life expectancy in European countries 1990–2021: a sub analysis of causes and risk factors from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021
Background
Decades of steady improvements in life expectancy in Europe slowed down from around 2011, well before the COVID-19 pandemic, for reasons which remain disputed. We aimed to assess how changes in risk factors and cause-specific death rates in different European countries related to changes in life expectancy in those countries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods
We used data and methods from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2021 to compare changes in life expectancy at birth, causes of death, and population exposure to risk factors in 16 European Economic Area countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden) and the four UK nations (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) for three time periods: 1990–2011, 2011–19, and 2019–21.
Changes in life expectancy and causes of death were estimated with an established life expectancy cause-specific decomposition method, and compared with summary exposure values of risk factors for the major causes of death influencing life expectancy.
Findings
All countries showed mean annual improvements in life expectancy in both 1990–2011 (overall mean 0·23 years [95% uncertainty interval [UI] 0·23 to 0·24]) and 2011–19 (overall mean 0·15 years [0·13 to 0·16]).
The rate of improvement was lower in 2011–19 than in 1990–2011 in all countries except for Norway, where the mean annual increase in life expectancy rose from 0·21 years (95% UI 0·20 to 0·22) in 1990–2011 to 0·23 years (0·21 to 0·26) in 2011–19 (difference of 0·03 years).
In other countries, the difference in mean annual improvement between these periods ranged from –0·01 years in Iceland (0·19 years [95% UI 0·16 to 0·21] vs 0·18 years [0·09 to 0·26]), to –0·18 years in England (0·25 years [0·24 to 0·25] vs 0·07 years [0·06 to 0·08]). In 2019–21, there was an overall decrease in mean annual life expectancy across all countries (overall mean –0·18 years [95% UI –0·22 to –0·13]), with all countries having an absolute fall in life expectancy except for Ireland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, which showed marginal improvement in life expectancy, and Belgium, which showed no change in life expectancy.
Across countries, the causes of death responsible for the largest improvements in life expectancy from 1990 to 2011 were cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms. Deaths from cardiovascular diseases were the primary driver of reductions in life expectancy improvements during 2011–19, and deaths from respiratory infections and other COVID-19 pandemic-related outcomes were responsible for the decreases in life expectancy during 2019–21.
Deaths from cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms in 2019 were attributable to high systolic blood pressure, dietary risks, tobacco smoke, high LDL cholesterol, high BMI, occupational risks, high alcohol use, and other risks including low physical activity.
Exposure to these major risk factors differed by country, with trends of increasing exposure to high BMI and decreasing exposure to tobacco smoke observed in all countries during 1990–2021.
Interpretation
The countries that best maintained improvements in life expectancy after 2011 (Norway, Iceland, Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden) did so through better maintenance of reductions in mortality from cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms, underpinned by decreased exposures to major risks, possibly mitigated by government policies.
The continued improvements in life expectancy in five countries during 2019–21 indicate that these countries were better prepared to withstand the COVID-19 pandemic. By contrast, countries with the greatest slowdown in life expectancy improvements after 2011 went on to have some of the largest decreases in life expectancy in 2019–21.
These findings suggest that government policies that improve population health also build resilience to future shocks. Such policies include reducing population exposure to major upstream risks for cardiovascular diseases and neoplasms, such as harmful diets and low physical activity, tackling the commercial determinants of poor health, and ensuring access to affordable health services.
Funding
Gates Foundation.
