Morbidität

From the 1960s to the 1980s a common wisdom about differences between males and females in health and mortality emerged which was summarised by the well-known phrase "women are sicker, but men die quicker". Recently this wisdom has been increasingly questioned. Nevertheless, the general idea of a paradoxical relationship between health and mortality among women and men persists until today.

Better health is central to human happiness and wellbeing. It also contributes substantially to economic progress, as healthy populations live longer and are more productive. Accordingly, the EU defined the improvement of health as a fundamental element of its “Europe 2020” strategy. The corresponding public health policies are assessed on the basis of a structural indicator for “Health Expectancy” (HE). Unfortunately, HE estimates are extremely sensitive to certain methodological issues of which many are widely ignored.

The absolute and relative increase of retired people entails increasing pressure on the social security systems. Policymakers intend to reduce this burden by increasing the statutory pension age. This study investigates the effects of a longer working life time on health and life quality of order members to better assess the consequence of such a political measure.

The ASCOM project was established in the context of the ERC Starting Grant Project HEMOX (“The Male-Female Health Mortality Paradox”, Project No. 262663) and deals in the first years primarily with the gender differences in health and longevity.

In allen Ländern in Europa werden die Menschen immer älter. Dies ist eine Errungenschaft verbesserter Lebensbedingungen aber auch einer guten medizinischen Versorgung. Es ist heute bekannt, dass die Wahrscheinlichkeit, an chronischen Erkrankungen zu leiden, mit zunehmendem Lebensalter ansteigt. Organe wie die Niere oder das Herz arbeiten oftmals eingeschränkt. Diese chronischen Erkrankungen können, bei nicht umfassender medizinischer Betreuung und Information der betroffenen Menschen, zu einer Verschlechterung der Lebensqualität führen.