Large social inequalities in Norway

OsloOslo.Photo Norway Today Media

There are some higher social inequalities in Norway than in many other European countries, according to Public Health.

Norwegians with higher education live six to seven years longer than those with the shortest education, showed by Public Health report.

– It is important to monitor health inequalities in the society because there is a willingness in Norway to reduce these unnecessary and unjust differences, says Senior Scientist Bjørn Heine Strand at the National Public Health Institute.

Social inequalities in health applies to almost all diseases, injuries and ailments and are for all ages.

Better for men, worse for women

It is primarily cardiovascular diseases that create the big differences in life expectancy also there are other smoking-related diseases such as COPD and lung cancer which have an effect as well.

Updated data shows an increase among men.

The differences between men with high and low education has begun to level off in terms of overall mortality.

But among women, it is increasing in the wrong direction and the differences increase.

Part of the explanation is increased mortality when it comes to lung cancer and lung disease COPD.

– The effort to do something about living conditions, such as employment, education and living environment, can help to promote health. It will also reduce social inequalities and increase the life expectancy of all groups, says Strand.

Smoking

Smoking habits are probably a particularly important explanation for differences in mortality. An important public health challenge is to combat smoking, especially in groups with low education, mentioned by National Public Health Institute.

In the group with the highest education about 6-7 per cent are smoking, while smokers make up 25 to 27 percent in the group with the lowest education.

The differences in mortality between educational groups is greater in Norway than in most other European countries. In Norway and Lithuania, the discrepancies are greatest among women.

Here the difference is twice as large as France, Switzerland, Spain and Italy.
Norway is also one of the three European countries with the greatest difference between men.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

 

1 Comment on "Large social inequalities in Norway"

  1. Anshuman Mukherjee | 27. October 2016 at 08:17 |

    Apart from that, I have experienced another type of social inequality. Like racism. When I used to stay in Oslo, I noticed, Norwegian used to hesitate to sit beside me in a public bus or train or tram or any public vehicles, even if there is no other seat is available. I have seen, Norwegians would rather stay standing, but try not to sit in an empty sit beside me – may be because of my skin colour.
    I have seen and heard, in European countries, still the quality of a human being is measured by the skin colour. – And so in most of the cases, an Asian would never be invited in a European’s home.
    And for the same reason, you will be laid off first before any European, even if there is no question of performance.

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