Switzerland tops europe for centenarians

LONDON - Switzerland has more centenarians than any other European country, thanks to an improved standard of living and better healthcare and nutrition during the past 50 years, researchers said on Tuesday.

The Alpine nation has the highest life expectancy in Europe and is thought to be second only to Japan in the proportion of the population who have reached 100, they added.

"There has been a true increase in centenarians which started abruptly in the 1950s," Professor Fred Paccaud, of the Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine in Lausanne, told Reuters.

About 40 out of every 10,000 people born in 1900 in Switzerland reached 100, according to his study of birth and death trends in the country from 1860-2001.

Apart from a dip during the influenza epidemic of 1918, life expectancy has risen by 98 per cent for men and 96 per cent for women in Switzerland in the past 140 years.

But Paccaud and his colleague Jean-Marie Robine, who reported their findings in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, said most of the increase has occurred since the 1950s. Swiss women, whose life expectancy is 83 years, have benefited more than men, who can expect to live to about 77.

"We have about 20 times as many female centenarians as males," said Paccaud.

Violence, smoking, alcohol and biological factors contribute the male disadvantage, he added.

The scientists believe a better standard of living since the 1950s is the single most important factor in people living to such an old age. Unlike other European countries, Switzerland did not experience mass deaths during the wars of the past century.

"We have an unprecedented decline in mortality among aged people," Paccaud said. "About half of women in Switzerland die after their 85th birthday."

Deaths among people in their 90s and in those who have reached 100 are still declining, which the scientists said suggests the trend has not peaked.

Worldwide life expectancy at birth has more than doubled over the past two centuries, according to published research. If the trend continues, scientists believe the average life expectancy in developed countries could reach 100 in 60 years.

- REUTERS