Regional differences in trends in life expectancy and the influence of the political and socioeconomic contexts in Germany.

Abstract

The aim of the study is to investigate to what extent trends in life expectancy are influenced by political variables and socioeconomic characteristics that play a role at the regional level of the federal states in Germany. Data on life expectancy in males and females at birth are analyzed from 1986 to 1998 for 12 federal states in Eastern and Western Germany. These states are classified into five types of political government since 1980: (1) long-term Christian democratic, (2) long-term social democratic, (3) change from Christian to social democratic, (4) change from communist to social democratic, and (5) change from communist to Christian democratic. The study showed three main results. First, life expectancy has been directly influenced by the major political forces that determined policies in East and West Germany. Second, life expectancy was higher in federal states with predominantly Christian democratic governments than in those with predominantly social democratic governments. Third, life expectancy was strongly related to the economic power of the federal states. Because federal states characterized by a more prosperous economic situation were those with a predominantly Christian democratic government, while federal states with a less prosperous situation were mostly governed by social democrats, it is difficult to disentangle the effects of economic and political factors on life expectancy. Nevertheless, this study underlines the importance of politics and policies on such robust and more general health indicators as mean life expectancy at birth.