Malta Region
Medium HALE and Life Expectancy
Medium Gap between HALE and Life Expectancy
Final Longevity Progressiveness Ranking: #21
Final Longevity Progressiveness Score: 0.661
Practical Recommendation Summary: Malta has the highest obesity rate in the EU, and this remains the major public health issue, both in adults and in children. Poor health behaviours tend to be most common among lower socio-economic groups. Policies should deal with encouragement of health behaviour and reduction of income inequality.
Practical Recommendations (Full):
● Enhance eHealth infrastructure. To achieve higher efficiency of healthcare system and better health outcomes in context of ageing and life expectancy improvements the government should modernise health centres by providing the latest technological equipment. The government also should give particular attention to development of eHealth systems, include the creation of electronic patient records in primary health care, e-prescription services and patient registries.
● Shift from “sick care” to preventive medicine. Enhancement of primary care through incorporation of advanced preventive medicine is an important step on the way to Healthy Longevity. Strengthening public primary and community care would also result in fewer self-referrals to hospital emergency departments for minor ailments and conditions where treatment costs are much higher.
● Move to a life-course perspective in tackling the rising epidemic of “metabesity.” Initiate strategies to improve the health of the nation, promote the importance of focusing on socio-demographic factors to ensure delivery of healthy newborns and decrease the burden of behavioral factors such as insufficient physical ability, overweight, alcohol abuse, smoking. This will stimulate policy initiatives that supplement income and improve educational opportunities, housing prospects, and social mobility as income is strongly associated with morbidity and mortality.
● Introduce long term care insurance system. Malta faces important fiscal challenges, in part due to the expected costs of caring for its ageing population and associated increases in chronic conditions. Current demographic trends pose threats on fiscal sustainability. The government should provide incentives for longevity financial industry development to minimise future risks exposure.
● Enhance physical healthcare infrastructure and extend its network. Increased immigration from workers and pensioners, tourists using the health system and changing population risk behaviours stretch healthcare system capacity.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
● Life expectancy at birth is 81.9 years which is higher EU average.
● There was a significant reduction in premature deaths from cardiovascular diseases.
● Amenable mortality in Malta has fallen rapidly for the few past decades.
● There is a good access to the healthcare in Malta with low number of unmet needs.
● Maltese people enjoy 90% of their lives in good health.
● Malta has successfully tackled long waiting times for surgical interventions and diagnostics.
Weaknesses:
● Health expenditure is lower than EU average and reaches 8.4% of GDP.
● There is a high level of out-of-pocket that is about 30% of total expenditures.
● There is at least a three-year gap in life expectancy between people with lower and higher education qualifications.
● In 2015 Malta recorded the third highest rate of newly reported HIV cases in the EU/EEA.
● Health inequality is caused by socioeconomic disparities in Malta: a third of those in the lowest income quintile are obese compared to only one fifth in the highest.
Opportunities:
● There is a great room for the capacity building and increasing the number of doctors, nurses and facilities.
● Develop government-led plan and specific programmes that aim to decrease probability of premature deaths with particular focus on behavioral risk factors.
● Expand acute hospital capacity and geriatric care.
● Well-composed primary care based on the reimbursement model including transparency, quality control and equal distribution of the resources among the facilities.
Threats:
● 20% of adults smoked tobacco every day.
● Increasing alcohol consumption among adults.
● Obesity rates are highest in the EU as the quarter of the adult population and 30% of adolescents are obese.
● Shifting demographics, resulting in ageing population.
● Increase in public health spending and changes in finance and reimbursement policies.
● Death rates from the ischemic heart disease are above the EU average.
● 27% of deaths in Malta are caused by cancer.
SWOT Conclusions
Strengths Analysis:
● Maltese men and women aged 65 and over can expect to live 13.4 years and 14.0 years respectively of their remaining life free of disability, the second highest among EU countries.
● There was a significant decline in mortality rates from treatable cancers and respiratory diseases.
● More than 70% of people in Malta report being in good health.
● Healthcare system in Malta is comprehensive and characterised by predominantly public providers in the hospital sector and a pluralism of providers in the primary care and ambulatory care specialist sectors.
● Waiting lists for hospital interventions have been successfully reduced by increasing the number of procedures performed in public hospitals.
● Essential medicines are free of charge for low income households
Weaknesses Analysis:
● Ischemic heart disease, musculoskeletal disorders and diabetes are the main reasons for the disability-adjusted years.
● There was an increase of the cases of Alzheimer diseases since 2000 due to the lack of the effective treatments.
● More than one in five people in Malta lives with hypertension, one in twelve lives with diabetes, and one in seventeen lives with asthma.
● There are low level of physical activities among adults and 15-year-olds in Malta.
● Malta records relatively high levels of deaths within 30 days of admission to hospital for acute myocardial infarction.
● Malta faces important fiscal challenges, in part due to the expected costs of caring for its ageing population and associated increases in chronic conditions.
Medium Gap between HALE and Life Expectancy
Final Longevity Progressiveness Ranking: #21
Final Longevity Progressiveness Score: 0.661
Practical Recommendation Summary: Malta has the highest obesity rate in the EU, and this remains the major public health issue, both in adults and in children. Poor health behaviours tend to be most common among lower socio-economic groups. Policies should deal with encouragement of health behaviour and reduction of income inequality.
Practical Recommendations (Full):
● Enhance eHealth infrastructure. To achieve higher efficiency of healthcare system and better health outcomes in context of ageing and life expectancy improvements the government should modernise health centres by providing the latest technological equipment. The government also should give particular attention to development of eHealth systems, include the creation of electronic patient records in primary health care, e-prescription services and patient registries.
● Shift from “sick care” to preventive medicine. Enhancement of primary care through incorporation of advanced preventive medicine is an important step on the way to Healthy Longevity. Strengthening public primary and community care would also result in fewer self-referrals to hospital emergency departments for minor ailments and conditions where treatment costs are much higher.
● Move to a life-course perspective in tackling the rising epidemic of “metabesity.” Initiate strategies to improve the health of the nation, promote the importance of focusing on socio-demographic factors to ensure delivery of healthy newborns and decrease the burden of behavioral factors such as insufficient physical ability, overweight, alcohol abuse, smoking. This will stimulate policy initiatives that supplement income and improve educational opportunities, housing prospects, and social mobility as income is strongly associated with morbidity and mortality.
● Introduce long term care insurance system. Malta faces important fiscal challenges, in part due to the expected costs of caring for its ageing population and associated increases in chronic conditions. Current demographic trends pose threats on fiscal sustainability. The government should provide incentives for longevity financial industry development to minimise future risks exposure.
● Enhance physical healthcare infrastructure and extend its network. Increased immigration from workers and pensioners, tourists using the health system and changing population risk behaviours stretch healthcare system capacity.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
● Life expectancy at birth is 81.9 years which is higher EU average.
● There was a significant reduction in premature deaths from cardiovascular diseases.
● Amenable mortality in Malta has fallen rapidly for the few past decades.
● There is a good access to the healthcare in Malta with low number of unmet needs.
● Maltese people enjoy 90% of their lives in good health.
● Malta has successfully tackled long waiting times for surgical interventions and diagnostics.
Weaknesses:
● Health expenditure is lower than EU average and reaches 8.4% of GDP.
● There is a high level of out-of-pocket that is about 30% of total expenditures.
● There is at least a three-year gap in life expectancy between people with lower and higher education qualifications.
● In 2015 Malta recorded the third highest rate of newly reported HIV cases in the EU/EEA.
● Health inequality is caused by socioeconomic disparities in Malta: a third of those in the lowest income quintile are obese compared to only one fifth in the highest.
Opportunities:
● There is a great room for the capacity building and increasing the number of doctors, nurses and facilities.
● Develop government-led plan and specific programmes that aim to decrease probability of premature deaths with particular focus on behavioral risk factors.
● Expand acute hospital capacity and geriatric care.
● Well-composed primary care based on the reimbursement model including transparency, quality control and equal distribution of the resources among the facilities.
Threats:
● 20% of adults smoked tobacco every day.
● Increasing alcohol consumption among adults.
● Obesity rates are highest in the EU as the quarter of the adult population and 30% of adolescents are obese.
● Shifting demographics, resulting in ageing population.
● Increase in public health spending and changes in finance and reimbursement policies.
● Death rates from the ischemic heart disease are above the EU average.
● 27% of deaths in Malta are caused by cancer.
SWOT Conclusions
Strengths Analysis:
● Maltese men and women aged 65 and over can expect to live 13.4 years and 14.0 years respectively of their remaining life free of disability, the second highest among EU countries.
● There was a significant decline in mortality rates from treatable cancers and respiratory diseases.
● More than 70% of people in Malta report being in good health.
● Healthcare system in Malta is comprehensive and characterised by predominantly public providers in the hospital sector and a pluralism of providers in the primary care and ambulatory care specialist sectors.
● Waiting lists for hospital interventions have been successfully reduced by increasing the number of procedures performed in public hospitals.
● Essential medicines are free of charge for low income households
Weaknesses Analysis:
● Ischemic heart disease, musculoskeletal disorders and diabetes are the main reasons for the disability-adjusted years.
● There was an increase of the cases of Alzheimer diseases since 2000 due to the lack of the effective treatments.
● More than one in five people in Malta lives with hypertension, one in twelve lives with diabetes, and one in seventeen lives with asthma.
● There are low level of physical activities among adults and 15-year-olds in Malta.
● Malta records relatively high levels of deaths within 30 days of admission to hospital for acute myocardial infarction.
● Malta faces important fiscal challenges, in part due to the expected costs of caring for its ageing population and associated increases in chronic conditions.