“There is a very strong correlation between education and health, and education and survival,” says Denny Vågerö, professor of medical sociology at CHESS, to Radio Sweden.
Growing gap in life expectancy
Denny Vågerö is part of a Nordic research team using a large amount of population data, and the results show that the gap in life expectancy has grown since 1970.
The results were presented at a symposium at the Royal Academy of Sciences recently and have left researchers puzzled: Why is the health gap growing despite the welfare state’s comprehensive education system and well-developed social safety net? The symposium revealed that future studies need to focus on several factors, such as quality of education, income inequality, and childhood conditions in order to find the explanation.
Documentation from the symposium “Health inequalities in modern welfare states. Do we understand present trends?” at the Royal Academy of Sciences, 23-24 January 2013.
