A new report published on Thursday 22 November by the European Commission and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) calls for better use of health spending. Its recommendations include improving mental health and preventing mental illness.
The document, entitled 'Health at a Glance: EUROPE 2018', presents an overview of the health situation in 36 countries, including the 28 EU Member States and the three candidate countries. Throughout its 215 pages, it focuses on risk factors, health expenditure, efficiency and accessibility of care, and resilience. It also includes two thematic chapters on mental illness and unnecessary expenditure.
For example, it shows that one in six Europeans is obese and one in five is a smoker. It also notes wide variations in life expectancy by gender and economic status. For example, on average, across the EU as a whole, men aged 30 with a low level of education can expect to live about eight years less than those with a university degree.
Improving mental health
According to recent estimates, in 2015, 84,000 people died from mental illness or suicide and, in 2016, one in six Europeans suffered from a mental health problem (84 million people). The highest suicide rates recorded are in Lithuania (30 deaths per 100,000 of population), and in Slovenia, Latvia and Hungary (20 per 100,000). The lowest rates recorded are in the southern countries, specifically Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Malta and Spain. On average, the suicide rate is 3.7 times higher for men than for women.
The cost of mental illness in 2015 has been estimated at 4% of GDP, or more than €600 billion in the EU28.
Reducing unnecessary expenditure
The chapter on health expenditure indicates that States spend 9.6% of their GDP on health and that 20% of that expenditure "could be reallocated to more positive uses". Unnecessary admissions, such as those for diabetes, hypertension and asthma, take up 37 million hospital beds each year. Admissions of these kinds are particularly high in Bulgaria and Romania.
Publication of this report will be followed by publication of health profiles for each country separately in 2019. The report is available at: https://bit.ly/2zU40eD. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)