Health in Estonia
From Wikiprogress.org
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The relationship of health to progress
In a sustainable society people tend to lead longer and healthier lives. Good health can bring economic and social benefits to individuals, their families and the society as a whole. It is important to measure Progress in health in Estonia to improve healthy life expectancy of the population/workforce and monitor the overall sustainability of the health care system. Poor health does not enable to secure quality of life and wellbeing of a society. The need for health care services is on the rise, because the number of seniors in a society is growing. A great deal of the loss of health that occurs in Estonia is preventable: the three main causes of premature death are cardio-vascular diseases, tumours and injuries, and all three are significantly influenced by health behaviour and environmental factors. In terms of health indicators, inequality between different groups within the Estonian population has consistently grown.
Different aspects of progress in health
In addition to life expectancy at birth, we need to look at other aspects of health for example such as healthy/disability-free life expectancy, avoidable deaths and main causes of deaths (alcohol and drug abuse, cardiovascular diseases), HIV/AIDS and drug prevention, infant mortality rates. Despite the fact that the average life expectancy in Estonia has increased over the last years, it is still 73.2 years compared to the average of 78 in the EU. The healthy life expectancy in Estonia is essentially lower than the average level in the EU Member States. The health indicators of socially vulnerable groups are among the worst in the European Union. Cardiovascular diseases are the main reason for early loss of work capacity and death in Estonia. Estonia is a leader in cardiovascular diseases mortality in Europe and the whole world. Compared to the average of the old Member States, the rate of preventable injury deaths is 4 times bigger in Estonia. Traffic injuries and deaths, drowning, slaughter and suicide cases are mainly the result of abusing alcohol. The high rate of premature morbidity and mortality compared to developed countries in Europe poses a serious challenge to the socio-economic development of the nation. Experience in many countries has demonstrated that the average life expectancy of people can be prolonged and healthy years of life can be extended by cardiovascular diseases prevention. HIV incidence and prevalence in Estonia is among the highest in the European Union countries. Risk factors are also great, with high rates of smoking and alcohol consumption. The consumption of alcoholic beverages increases constantly and has exceeded the amount of 12 litres of absolute alcohol per person from birth to death.
Implications of Health for Other Areas in Society
Improvements in the area of health have links to a number of other dimensions. For example:
- poor health of the population is a major cost to the country’s economy and entails major costs to public expenditure in financing of the health care system (cost of absence in the workforce, lower productivity, replacement costs etc.);
- poor mental/physical health can impair education and puts constraints on individual’s employment, social life and happiness; good health is the source for individual development and better quality of life;
- good health is a productive factor in a comptetitive economy, an improvement in health and extended healthy life years can lead to improvement in labour supply in the case of projected workforce shortage in an ageing society;
- better health behaviour and healthy population overall will lead to greater productivity and progress in the economy (less sickness costs, absence etc.);
- successful drug and alcohol use prevention programmes will lead to progress in the area of prevention of crime.
