DIW Wealthy women live longer

According to a study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), women live much longer if they earn well.

(03.08.2010) The life expectancy also has to do with the respective income. This is confirmed by a recent study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). Thus, women who have a very high self-generated income, have a significantly higher life expectancy and live on average longer than women who earn little. On average, women on high incomes live three years longer than others.

The DIW published its study on Tuesday. Friedrich Breyer said in presenting the results: "Women, who belong to the top ten percent of the earners, live about three years longer than women from the lowest ten percent". However, the authors can only speculate about the exact circumstances. Presumably it would be because rich women have a higher level of education and increase in income and the health consciousness.

Other studies in men came to similar conclusions and found a link between life expectancy and income. Due to the still manfestierten social role distributions, it is difficult to separate the labor income of the woman from the household income. For men, household income is often the same as their own income. In the DIW study, household income was for the first time separated from earned income. The study examined groups of women who have paid into the pension funds for at least 25 years and died between 1994 and 2005. "We see clearly that even women with high earned income live longer," says Breyer. However, the effect on women is only about half that of men. Why this is so, the Institute wants to continue exploring.

On the other hand, poverty makes people sick and reduces life expectancy further. A DGB study, which was presented in early 2010, showed that every fifth unemployed suffer from health restrictions. A 2008 study by the IGES Institute certifies unemployment as "favoring disease". For example, the risk of cardiovascular disease is doubled, causing those affected to die sooner. (Sb)