The life expectancy of poor and rich people is increasingly drifting apart

Rich people live on average around ten years longer

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer - this observation has been hotly debated recently. Now comes a new realization: The rich are getting older and the poor die earlier and earlier. The much-discussed gap between rich and poor has a massive impact on overall life expectancy, according to a recent study. There is now a difference in life expectancy averaging ten years.

The gap in the life expectancy of the richest and the poorest strata of society is increasing. This emerges from a study of Imperial College London. The researchers evaluated over 7.5 million deaths registered in England from 2001 to 2016, taking into account the deceased's financial situation. It showed that the gap in life expectancy has increased rapidly since 2001. In 2001, the poorest population lived about six years shorter than the richest. In 2016, the difference was already ten years. The study results have recently been published in the journal "Lancet Public Health".

Not only does money govern the world, it also determines general life expectancy, as evidenced by studies at Imperial College London and the Robert Koch Institute. (Image: Cherries / fotolia.com)

A deeply troubling trend

The results of the study are described by the researchers as "deeply disturbing". According to the study, the current life expectancy of English women in the most deprived sections of the population was 78.8 years in 2016, compared with 86.7 years in the richest group. The life expectancy of the men was 74.0 years among the poorest, compared to 83.8 years among the richest.

Social injustice in the health system

"Falling life expectancy in the poorest segment of the population is a deeply troubling indicator of our nation's state of health and shows we are leaving out the most vulnerable," concludes study author Professor Majid Ezzati on the state of the English health care system.

For the poor, there is a poor diet

One reason for this trend sees the professor in the dietary habits. "The price of healthy foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, has gone up compared to unhealthy processed products, making them too expensive for the poorest," says Ezzati in a press release. In addition, cuts in health care would have led to certain diseases such as cancer or dementia such as Alzheimer's being diagnosed too late in poorer people.

Children living in poverty are particularly hard hit

The trend was according to the researchers, according to all clinical pictures. However, the difference was most pronounced in the mortality of newborns and children. In 2016, poorer families lost 2.5 times as many children under the age of five as wealthy families. Other diseases where the difference was particularly noticeable, according to the study respiratory diseases, heart disease, lung and colon cancer and dementia.

Is not helped enough for lack of money?

"This study suggests that the poor in England die from diseases that can be prevented and treated," says Ezzati. Higher investment in health and social care is needed to counteract this trend. Also, healthy food needs to become more affordable so that the income of a family does not determine the quality of the diet, the English research team demands.

What does the trend in Germany look like??

An analysis by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) from 2014 comes to similar conclusions that even surpass the English divide. According to the RKI, the difference in life expectancy between rich and poor is 8.4 years for women and 10.8 years for men. In addition, premature mortality is higher among poor people. "The results show that women and men whose incomes are below the risk-of-poverty threshold have a 2.4- and 2.7-fold higher mortality risk relative to the highest income group," the RKI experts report in their study results , (Vb)