Irish people have a shorter life expectancy than people in other wealthy EU countries, a European report on healthy ageing has found.
Healthy Ageing - A Challenge for Europe, launched in Dublin yesterday, said that countries with high gross domestic product (GDP) usually have longer life expectancy, but this was not the case in Ireland.
Though we had a GDP per head of €36,600 in 2004 and were ranked third in Europe in terms of wealth, our average life expectancy of 77.8 years ranked us 17th. This compared to 80.6 years in Iceland, 80.2 in Sweden and 79.5 in Norway.
Dr Paula Gilvarry, president of the Irish Medical Organisation, said Ireland has higher than EU-average death rates from circulatory diseases, cancer and respiratory diseases.
"The figures show that we are still playing catch-up in terms of investment in health," she said.
The report was released in the wake of the Healthy Ageing Project, a three-year project co-funded by the European Commission, to promote healthy ageing in those aged 50 and over.
It found that by 2025, one-third of Europe's population will be aged 60 years or over.
It said this will impact substantially on the economies of individual states and will have significant repercussions in terms of the social development, welfare and general well-being of older people.
"The effect on healthcare will be amplified by a disproportionate increase in dementia, depression and mental illness."
The report recommended the promotion of physical activity for older people and safety and injury-prevention programmes.
It also called for older people to be encouraged to stop smoking as smokers who stop when they are 65-70 years old halve their risk of premature death.
