Geneva, May 6 (EFE).- Social conditions such as inadequate housing, education and job opportunities have a greater influence on health outcomes than genetics or medical care, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report released Tuesday.
The World Report on Social Determinants of Health Equity, the WHO’s first on the topic since 2008, highlights how these factors can lead to a “dramatic reduction” in healthy life expectancy, sometimes by decades.
“Where we are born, grow, live, work and age significantly influences our health and well-being,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the report’s release.
The report highlights a stark 33-year gap in life expectancy between people born in countries with the highest life expectancy, like Japan, and those in countries with the lowest, such as Chad.
“Billions of people face a higher risk of illness and death just because of the conditions they are born into such as which area they live in and the social group to which they belong,” Ghebreyesus said.
“Health inequity is not an accident; it stems from how society allocates resources and opportunities,” he added, emphasizing that much of the global disease and mortality burden is “preventable.”
Even within high-income countries, disparities persist. In Japan, men living in less developed regions live 2.5 years less, on average, than those in wealthier areas.
In Hungary and Poland, people with lower levels of education can have life expectancies up to 10 years shorter than those with more education.
Discrimination and marginalization further widen these gaps. The report notes that indigenous populations tend to have significantly lower life expectancy than non-indigenous ones.
For example, the life expectancy gap is 12.5 years between Inuit people and the general population in Canada, and 10 years between Aboriginal Australians and the national average.
Children are particularly affected. The report found that children born in poorer countries are 13 times more likely to die before the age of five than those in wealthier nations. WHO estimates that closing social equity gaps could save 1.8 million children’s lives annually.
WHO urged governments to invest in universal public services, including education, social security, and healthcare, as a means to reduce inequality, noting that about 3.8 billion people still lack “adequate social protection coverage.” EFE
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