Mortalität

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in mortality in 2020 with a resultant decrease in life expectancy in most countries around the world. In Germany, the reduction in life expectancy at birth between 2019 and 2020 was comparatively small, at -0.20 years. The decrease was stronger among men than among women (-0.24 vs. -0.13 years) and in eastern rather than in western Germany (-0.36 vs. -0.16 years). Men in eastern Germany experienced the biggest decline in life expectancy at birth (-0.41 years). For western German men, the decline was less pronounced (-0.19 years).

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.

General Objectives

The project aims to use setting-specific Multidimensional Prognostic Indices (MPI) that predict mortality, based on a standard CGA, to improve the cost-effectiveness of health interventions in older individuals with multimorbidity and polypharmacy.

The FACTAGE project examines emerging inequalities in Europe’s ageing societies, with a specific focus on labour markets, (healthy) life expectancy and subjective well-being. The FACTAGE consortium recognizes these as major societal challenges which can be addressed by innovative evidence-based policymaking. The aim is to identify policies that can best promote fairness within and between generations.