Cyprus healthier than EU but health spending less

Cyprus is outperforming the European Union average on a range of metrics related to public health, despite government spending on health falling below the bloc’s average, according to the European Commission’s latest annual Health Profile for the country.

The island’s average life expectancy of 81.7 years is a full year higher than the EU average of 80.7, and higher than countries such as Denmark, Finland, Australia and Germany.

The figure was also just 1.6 years lower than that of Spain, the EU country with the highest average life expectancy, and over 7.4 years higher than the country with the lowest average life expectancy in the EU, Bulgaria.

Additionally, older people in Cyprus live longer without activity limitations than the EU average. Men in Cyprus are expected to have 19.1 years of life without limitations on their daily activities when they turn 65, while women can expect 21.5 years without activity limitation upon turning 65.

These figures are higher than the EU average figures of 17.4 years for men and 21 years for women respectively.

This figure correlates with statistics among people in Cyprus already aged 65 and over, of whom just 14 per cent of men and 23 per cent of women face limitations in their daily activities, compared to 22 per cent of men and 30 per cent of women on average across the EU.

Cyprus also has the lowest rate of preventable and treatable deaths across the EU’s 27 member states, at less than 200 per 100,000 people. Only Norway and Iceland in the European Economic Area had lower rates.

In addition, Cyprus has the lowest rate of unmet needs for medical care in Europe, with less than one per cent of people across all income categories reporting that their healthcare needs were unmet.

Cyprus’ high performance in the health sector comes despite health expenditure on the island falling below the EU’s average, both as a percentage of gross domestic product and in terms of spending per capita.

Cyprus spends 9.4 per cent of its GDP on health expenditure, lower than the EU average of 11 per cent. This translates to a per capita annual spend of €2,686, which is once again lower than the EU average of €4,028.

The proportion of healthcare paid for directly by patients is also lower among people in Cyprus than across the EU, with just 10 per cent of healthcare spending in Cyprus being paid for “out of pocket”, compared to 15 per cent on average across the EU.

The news is not all good for Cyprus in the report, however. The island has the highest proportion in Europe of people with bloodstream infections who have tested positive for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, at a whopping 43 per cent. This figure is almost three times the EU average of 15 per cent.

In addition, the number of nursing graduates in Cyprus per year is less than a third of the EU average, at 15 nursing graduates per year per 100,000 people, with the number having fallen off a cliff in 2014.

As a result, Cyprus has just 4.8 practising nurses per 1,000 people, just over half the EU average of 8.5 practising nurses per 1,000 people. Despite this, the island has five doctors per 1,000 people, which is higher than the EU average, and also shows Cyprus has more doctors than nurses.

Additionally, people in Cyprus are more likely to smoke but less likely to drink heavily or be obese than the EU average.

A total of 23 per cent of people in Cyprus smoke daily, higher than the EU average of 19 per cent, while just four per cent of people in Cyprus reported drinking heavily – just over a fifth of the EU average of 19 per cent. Meanwhile, 15 per cent of people in Cyprus are obese, one per cent lower than the EU average.