Finland Region
Medium HALE and Life Expectancy
High Gap between HALE and Life Expectancy
Final Longevity Progressiveness Ranking: #19
Final Longevity Progressiveness Score: 0.668
Practical Recommendation Summary: Alcohol consumption should be considered as it remains an important public health issue in Finland, with more than one-third of adults reporting heavy alcohol consumption on a regular basis.
Practical Recommendations (Full):
● Tackle socioeconomic inequality and reduce disparity in health outcomes. Struggling with inequalities should be key goals in Healthy Longevity plans and healthcare policies to boost longevity and bring more health-adjusted years to the Finnish population.
● Accumulate affords to improve care delivery. Care coordination is closely connected with the primary care that is not fully accessible for all layers of the population. Some people need to go to specialists or emergency to receive treatments that are not needed and should be provided by the primary doctors. The government should solve this problem to reduce out-pocket expenditure and minimise risks exposure.
● Struggling with heavy alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption in Finland is generally the reason for most of the noncommunicable diseases that can cause early deaths. Initiatives should be focused on minimising behavioral risk factors that are key causes of most non-communicable diseases.
● Popularisation of healthy way of life. Strong health is a fundamental for the long life expectancy and healthy years of life. Physical exercises, balanced diet help to maintain a healthy body weight, keep sound health.
● Utilizing advanced technologies in healthcare. Advanced technologies can help to combat with main disease burden and reduce the bad impact of metabolic processes on health-adjusted life expectancy and can greatly elongate the life expectancy and health-adjusted years.
● Shift from the primary to the preventive care. This is the place where P4 medicine can be used when every person in Finland can be in authority of its health and well-being. Preventive care can also reduce the expenditure on health and make treatments more effective when the diseases can be diagnosed in early stages to cure a person quickly, mitigating risk of premature death.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
● Life expectancy in Finland is high and now above the EU average (81.6 years).
● There was a great reduce in the mortality from cardiovascular diseases for people aged more than 65 years for the past decades.
● Relatively high spending on health in Finland that is 9.4% and is just slightly below the EU average.
● The public funding occupies the three quarters of total costs that is the relatively good amount and matches the EU average.
● Amenable mortality is lower than the EU average.
● The healthcare is generally accessible and HAQ index is 95.9.
Weaknesses:
● The gap between HALE and life expectancy is still high: people aged 65 years and higher can live only half of additionally predicted years without a disability.
● There is a considerable amount of spending by households.
● Unmet needs for medical care in Finland are higher than the EU.
● There are disparities among the different income groups: those with lower incomes can be involved in the long waiting periods.
● Men live six years less than women and this indicator is higher than EU average.
● People aged 65 expect to live only half of additional years without disabilities.
Opportunities:
● Healthcare is focused on care delivery and successful outcomes of medical interventions.
● Increase the financial sustainability of the health system by expanding its revenue base.
● Municipalities organise many services for the elderly to make their lives easier and to enable them to live in their own homes for as long as possible.
● There is a significant reduction in waiting times for the surgery.
● A great springboard for the use of the advanced methods and technologies along with P4 medicine can create an additional force to struggle the NCDs and other diseases burdens.
Threats:
● The unemployed population have no access to occupational healthcare.
● Metabolic and behavioural factors are the main causes of the disability-adjusted years in Finland.
● Cardiovascular diseases (38% of death among women and 37% of death among men), cancer and nervous system disorders are the key reasons for the deaths among all age groups in Finland.
● An ageing population and slow-motion disaster of age-related diseases.
SWOT Conclusions
Strengths Analysis:
● Finnish women in age 65+ can live additionally 21.9 years and men 18.3 years and this indicator tend to grow.
● The Finnish healthcare system proposes universal coverage for the entire population including some basic service. It is a comprehensive one consisting of the decentralized three-levelled public system and less loaded smaller private sector.
● 70% of population reports to be in a good health that is higher than the EU average.
● There was a sharp decrease in the smoking rates that included the decline from 23% in 2000 to 15% in 2014 with more significant decrease in smoking for the adolescents (from 30% to 13%).
● Cancer care is generally effective in Finland: the overall mortality from cancer is among the lowest in the EU.
● The number of hospital beds has increased and the equipment became more available during the past decade.
Weaknesses Analysis:
● The rate of people died from the Alzheimer’s disease and dementia has doubled for the past years.
● Ischaemic heart diseases are the main causes for death in Finland and occupied 20% of deaths in 2014.
● There was an increase in death from the liver diseases through the past years due to the heavy alcohol consumption and increase in the levels of the death from other types of cancer except lung.
● 1 in 9 people in Finland lives with asthma, more than 1 in 10 live in chronic depression and more than 1 in 12 with diabetics.
● There is a big gap in health status among different layers of the population that is connected with education and income.
● The alcohol consumption is still the great burden for the Finland because there is 34% of people that are involved in regular drinking that is significantly higher than the EU average.
● 1 in 5 of adults (18%) in Finland was obese and this rate was above the most countries in EU.
High Gap between HALE and Life Expectancy
Final Longevity Progressiveness Ranking: #19
Final Longevity Progressiveness Score: 0.668
Practical Recommendation Summary: Alcohol consumption should be considered as it remains an important public health issue in Finland, with more than one-third of adults reporting heavy alcohol consumption on a regular basis.
Practical Recommendations (Full):
● Tackle socioeconomic inequality and reduce disparity in health outcomes. Struggling with inequalities should be key goals in Healthy Longevity plans and healthcare policies to boost longevity and bring more health-adjusted years to the Finnish population.
● Accumulate affords to improve care delivery. Care coordination is closely connected with the primary care that is not fully accessible for all layers of the population. Some people need to go to specialists or emergency to receive treatments that are not needed and should be provided by the primary doctors. The government should solve this problem to reduce out-pocket expenditure and minimise risks exposure.
● Struggling with heavy alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption in Finland is generally the reason for most of the noncommunicable diseases that can cause early deaths. Initiatives should be focused on minimising behavioral risk factors that are key causes of most non-communicable diseases.
● Popularisation of healthy way of life. Strong health is a fundamental for the long life expectancy and healthy years of life. Physical exercises, balanced diet help to maintain a healthy body weight, keep sound health.
● Utilizing advanced technologies in healthcare. Advanced technologies can help to combat with main disease burden and reduce the bad impact of metabolic processes on health-adjusted life expectancy and can greatly elongate the life expectancy and health-adjusted years.
● Shift from the primary to the preventive care. This is the place where P4 medicine can be used when every person in Finland can be in authority of its health and well-being. Preventive care can also reduce the expenditure on health and make treatments more effective when the diseases can be diagnosed in early stages to cure a person quickly, mitigating risk of premature death.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
● Life expectancy in Finland is high and now above the EU average (81.6 years).
● There was a great reduce in the mortality from cardiovascular diseases for people aged more than 65 years for the past decades.
● Relatively high spending on health in Finland that is 9.4% and is just slightly below the EU average.
● The public funding occupies the three quarters of total costs that is the relatively good amount and matches the EU average.
● Amenable mortality is lower than the EU average.
● The healthcare is generally accessible and HAQ index is 95.9.
Weaknesses:
● The gap between HALE and life expectancy is still high: people aged 65 years and higher can live only half of additionally predicted years without a disability.
● There is a considerable amount of spending by households.
● Unmet needs for medical care in Finland are higher than the EU.
● There are disparities among the different income groups: those with lower incomes can be involved in the long waiting periods.
● Men live six years less than women and this indicator is higher than EU average.
● People aged 65 expect to live only half of additional years without disabilities.
Opportunities:
● Healthcare is focused on care delivery and successful outcomes of medical interventions.
● Increase the financial sustainability of the health system by expanding its revenue base.
● Municipalities organise many services for the elderly to make their lives easier and to enable them to live in their own homes for as long as possible.
● There is a significant reduction in waiting times for the surgery.
● A great springboard for the use of the advanced methods and technologies along with P4 medicine can create an additional force to struggle the NCDs and other diseases burdens.
Threats:
● The unemployed population have no access to occupational healthcare.
● Metabolic and behavioural factors are the main causes of the disability-adjusted years in Finland.
● Cardiovascular diseases (38% of death among women and 37% of death among men), cancer and nervous system disorders are the key reasons for the deaths among all age groups in Finland.
● An ageing population and slow-motion disaster of age-related diseases.
SWOT Conclusions
Strengths Analysis:
● Finnish women in age 65+ can live additionally 21.9 years and men 18.3 years and this indicator tend to grow.
● The Finnish healthcare system proposes universal coverage for the entire population including some basic service. It is a comprehensive one consisting of the decentralized three-levelled public system and less loaded smaller private sector.
● 70% of population reports to be in a good health that is higher than the EU average.
● There was a sharp decrease in the smoking rates that included the decline from 23% in 2000 to 15% in 2014 with more significant decrease in smoking for the adolescents (from 30% to 13%).
● Cancer care is generally effective in Finland: the overall mortality from cancer is among the lowest in the EU.
● The number of hospital beds has increased and the equipment became more available during the past decade.
Weaknesses Analysis:
● The rate of people died from the Alzheimer’s disease and dementia has doubled for the past years.
● Ischaemic heart diseases are the main causes for death in Finland and occupied 20% of deaths in 2014.
● There was an increase in death from the liver diseases through the past years due to the heavy alcohol consumption and increase in the levels of the death from other types of cancer except lung.
● 1 in 9 people in Finland lives with asthma, more than 1 in 10 live in chronic depression and more than 1 in 12 with diabetics.
● There is a big gap in health status among different layers of the population that is connected with education and income.
● The alcohol consumption is still the great burden for the Finland because there is 34% of people that are involved in regular drinking that is significantly higher than the EU average.
● 1 in 5 of adults (18%) in Finland was obese and this rate was above the most countries in EU.