East-West mortality divide and its potential explanations: proposed research agenda

Abstract

There is a sharp divide in mortality between western Europe and the former socialist countries of central and eastern Europe. The difference in life expectancy between countries with the lowest and highest life expectancies at birth is more than 10 years in both men and women (figs 1 and 2). The gap in mortality has largely developed in the past two or three decades.1 2 3 4 In all western European countries life expectancy increased substantially between 1970 and 1991 (by three to four years on average). By contrast, the increase in central and eastern Europe was at best negligible, and in Hungary, Poland, and Bulgaria there was a decline in male life expectancy at age 15 (figs 3 and 4). No central or eastern European country recorded an increase in …