Hungarian health at a glance, 2017

Abstract

Background: The results of comprehensive analyses of Hungarians’ health and causes of health losses give a feedback for the decision makers and health professionals on their performance. The aim of this paper is to present recent data on health of the population in Hungary in order to reduce the shortage of information related to this field.

Methodology: Data about life expectancy of the Hungarian population and health losses linked to diseases or risk factors are provided by the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016. The source of mortality data is the mortality database of the Central Statistical Office and the National Institute for Health Promotion. On one hand, assessment of current Hungarian indicators is based on the short-term and long-term changes of indicators, on the other hand on the comparison with data about Austria and the Visegrad Group.

Results: The life expectancy and healthy life expectancy have been increasing in Hungary for a long time. However, the lag from countries with a similar level of development has not been declined. In 2016 non-communicable diseases related to health behavior and injuries caused al-most all health losses in Hungary. Health risks like unhealthy nutrition, inactivity, smoking and misuse of alcohol were the major causes of health losses. The most frequent causes of death were cardiovascular diseases and cancer which were followed by respiratory, digestive diseases, and external causes of morbidity and mortality. Analysis of preventable and avoidable mortality shows that by optimal functioning of the Hungarian health system more than one-third of people deceased in 2015, and three-quarters of people deceased under the age of 65 years would have been still alive.

Conclusions: The results of the analysis attest that suitable allocation of resources of the health system, particularly the reinforcement of public health is necessary for the Hungarians to have such a health status which is expected in a country with the same level of socio-economic development in a short time.