East-West Life Expectancy Gap in Europe: Environmental and Non-Environmental Determinants

These are the proceedings of a workshop on the determinants of the life expectancy difference between Eastern and Western Europe held in Surrey England March 20-22 1995. "The workshop focused on the following questions: to what extent has the life expectancy gap which has opened up between Central and Eastern Europe and The West since the mid-1960s been caused by the degradation of the physical and socioeconomic environment as opposed to unhealthy lifestyles or poor medical care? and why has it increased following the profound political and economic changes which have swept the region since 1989?...The picture which emerges is both complex and comprehensive. It highlights the primary role of the social and economic environment but affirms the subsidiary influences of the other determinants of health and illustrates how societies can both produce and undermine the health of their citizens." (EXCERPT)