POLITICIANS typically live longer than the general public, a new Oxford study has found.

New research by Oxford Population Health collated information on politicians from the UK, Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland and the USA.

The combined dataset included 57,561 politicians, of which 40,637 had died.

Each politician was matched according to their country, age, and gender to the mortality data from the equivalent section of the national population for that period of time.

The researchers then compared the number of deaths among the politicians each year with the number expected based on population mortality rates.

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Dr Laurence Roope, senior researcher at Oxford Population Health and a co-author of the study, said: “Our study is the largest to date to compare the mortality rate and life expectancy of politicians with those of the age and gender-matched general population.t

 

“The results show that the survival advantage of politicians today is very high compared to that observed in the first half of the 20th century. It is interesting that the mortality gaps we document typically started rising half a century earlier than the well documented increases in income inequality from the 1980s.”

Philip Clarke, professor of health economics and lead author, added: “Reducing health inequalities is high on the agenda of the UK Government and many other Governments. A key challenge will be to find ways to raise the life-expectancy of the public to close gaps with elite groups such as politicians.”

To read the study, visit https://www.ndph.ox.ac.uk/

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This story was written by Anna Colivicchi, she joined the team this year and covers health stories for the Oxfordshire papers. 

Get in touch with her by emailing: Anna.colivicchi@newsquest.co.uk

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