It is often said that prime ministers age faster while in office. It’s not for less because they should deal with a lot of stress. However, in addition to appearance, as a rule, both they and other politicians, as a rule, have a higher quality and life expectancy than the rest of the population. At least that’s the conclusion of a study just published. scientists from the University of Oxford.
In it, they analyzed the life expectancy rates of politicians and the general population in 11 countries. from 1945 to 2014. In addition, seven of them had earlier and/or later information, so they had data from 1816 to 2017. With these numbers, they were able to test the gap, which has been getting bigger and bigger ever since. mid 20th century.
The reasons are not clear, although most hypotheses point to privileges, both economically and in terms of access to certain types of treatment before the rest of the population. After all, we are no longer talking about the times of politicians like Robespierre. Today it is a safer profession. Or at least that’s how it should be, that’s fair. What doesn’t seem so fair is the question of privilege.
The Lifespan of Politicians Through the Ages
The study analyzes data from 11 countries: Italy, Austria, UK, Switzerland, Germany, France, Netherlands, USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada..
Data on all of them was extracted from mortality of the population and politicians. For the latter, gender, dates of birth and death, as well as dates of achievement of the position were taken into account.
For some countries, data for the 19th century has also been included.
there were some exceptional cases, for example, politicians who died a few months after taking office, some came into politics very young, at 21, while others were still alive at the age of 102. But in general, a certain trend was found, which, when compared with the general population, revealed two different stages.
To start, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, the life expectancy of politicians was very similar to that of the general population. In fact, in Canada and the Netherlands life expectancy at the end of the 19th century was even less than that of the rest of the population.
However, as the 20th century progressed, the life expectancy of politicians is getting longer, leading to big gap compared to the general population. This gap is coming from 3 years in Switzerland to 7 years in the USA. In addition, data such as the fact that in Italy any citizen 2.2 times more likely to die next year than a politician of the same gender and age.
The latter is important, since women’s life expectancy is usually higher. And actually this is one of the limitations of the study; since in general in most countries women did not go into politics until 1920s. For this reason, up to this date only males from the general population could be taken into account. Otherwise, the comparison would not be correct. Subsequently, women have taken more political positions, but even today they make up only a very small percentage of the data, from 3% in France and the USA to 21% in Germany.
What explains the differences found in the study?
The gap seems clear when analyzing these countries. What is not so clear is the reason that leads to these differences.
The authors of the study note that in general life expectancy changes they usually coincide with an increase or decrease in the frequency of certain diseases. Or even certain habits.
In the beginning, treatment for hypertension may have been more accessible to politicians.
For example, they cite the case smoking. For a long time, smoking rates have been very high among both politicians and the general population. In fact, there are many cases of death of politicians from diseases associated with this habit. One of them was Ulysses Granthead of the US government from 1869 to 1877eight years before he died of throat cancer.
When the harmful effects of tobacco became known, its consumption decreased, although clearly not enough. And it seems that politicians, perhaps to create a good image or perhaps to get more information, reduced this consumption before the rest of the population.
On the other hand, there are also significant differences in cardiovascular disease. Previously, there were not many differences. observed in cases such as Winston Churchillprime minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945. Franklin Rooseveltwho was President of the United States from 1933 to 1945. suffered from hypertension and both died of a stroke. This was a time when the harms of hypertension were not yet fully understood. However, studies during World War II showed that it could shorten life expectancy by up to five years.
At this time began to develop more proceduress able to keep this problem at bay. But, unfortunately, in the beginning, access to these treatments among politicians could have been easier.
But what about COVID-19?
In the study, the authors note that COVID-19 could have had a stronger impact on politicians, since, by virtue of their work, they are in contact with a much larger number of people. One need only look at the case of Spain, where a large number of politicians fell ill during the first months of the pandemic. However, the trend of the gap does not seem to have changed in these two years.
This, according to Oxford University scientists, could be due, at least in some countries, to much faster access to certain treatments, such as vaccine. It should be noted that this was not the case in all countries. In Spain, for example, politicians are vaccinated when necessary, according to their age group. But in other countries they are given priority. In addition, the study mentions the case of Donald Trump, who received treatment costing half a million US dollars.
What about other professions besides politicians?
Based on these results, it is worth asking a question that the authors of the study also asked themselves: what about other professionals equally?
These scientists believe that, for example, similar data could be found in the case of judges. In addition, they believe it would be necessary to see if these gaps are equal or larger in countries with less economic resources. After all, all the studied countries are large economies.
There is still much to be explored. But be that as it may, at the moment it seems that, apart from the growth of dark circles and new gray hair, political stance does not affect the health of those who claim it too much. Rather the complete opposite.
Source: Hiper Textual
