According to new research, it seems like Hungarians cannot look forward to enjoying their senior years. If we take a look at the number of healthy life years that we can expect for Hungarian men and women in general, we are kind of at the bottom of the list of the European countries. It seems like we can only look forward to about 66.8 healthy years in our lives, reports qubit.hu.
Since life expectancy at birth does not answer the question of whether we are going to spend those years in good or ill health, WHO published their statistical findings that focus on the quality of life, the years spent in good health, free of disabilities or significant health issues.
If we take a look at our neighbouring countries, the only one that is in an even worse spot than us is Romania. There the number of years one can live without significant health issues is 66.6, which is only a little bit less than ours. Just like in the case of general life expectancy, there is a difference between men and women.
In Hungary, men may only have 64.1 healthy years in their lives, while Hungarian women generally will have 69.5 years without health problems.
There is a recent study that says the estimated time we can spend in good health is getting a little bit longer every year in almost every country. For example in Hungary healthy life years started at 57.2 in 2006 and got to 60.5 in 2012. Which is good news, but Hungary is still way behind most Western countries. In Austria for example, people generally live without significant health issues until they are 72.4 years old.
The country where people will spend the shortest time being healthy is the Central African Republic. The number of years someone could live there without health issues is only 44.9, and there is not a big difference between men and women. Men are estimated to live healthily for 43.9 years, and women for 45.9 years.
Zimbabwe and Zambia are two other countries that are at the bottom end of this list made by WHO, but estimates are still a lot better here than in the Central African Republic. In Zimbabwe, the number of healthy years is estimated at 54.4, while in Zambia it is 54.3.
Japan is the number one country for living long, healthy lives. They can look forward to 74.8 years without health issues. On the second place is Switzerland with 73.5 years, then France with 73.4 years.
It might come as a surprise, but the United States is not in the top 3. US citizens can only look forward to 68.5 years without health problems
Source: qubit.hu
