Russian Life Expectancy Continues To Drop

Life expectancy in Russia, already lower than in any other developed country, has plummeted again this year, and scientists and public health officials say they cannot explain the continuing steep decline.

For the last several years health statistics in Russia have been hard to believe: No country that reports to the World Heath Organization has a life expectancy as low. Life expectancy for men born in Russia this year is lower than in India, Egypt or Bolivia.

Epidemic rates of heart disease, cancer and accidents account for much of the problem, which has caused death rates to more than double in the last decade. But none of that explains why Russia has become the first country in history to experience such sustained reversals in its health statistics.

“There is no historical precedent for this anywhere in the world,” said Judith Shapiro, an economist who specializes in health demographics at the University of London, referring to the drop in Russian male life expectancy from 64 to 57 in the last four years.

“Obviously nobody can quite figure it out. But it is a mystery that needs to be solved soon.”

Last year the death rate reached 15.6 for every 1,000 people, an increase of nearly 10 percent over the previous year and nearly 30 percent since 1992.

By contrast the birth rate fell to 9.0 per thousand from 9.4 the year before. In the United States last year the birth rate was 16.1 and the death rate was 9.0. Life expectancy for American men is 72 and for women 79. It is 71 for Russian women.

While death rates soar, birth rates are lower than in any other country. Only 1.4 million children were born in Russia last year, less than half the number of recorded abortions. For the first time last year the population shrank in every one of Russia’s 79 regional districts.

But what frightens researchers most is the condition of those children who are born. More than 10 percent have serious birth defects, 50 percent of all school children suffer from chronic illnesses, and these rates are growing every year.

Frustrated by explanations that don’t quite add up, scientists are looking more closely at the history of Soviet ecological abuse for answers - open nuclear testing and toxic chemical contamination.

“What we have here is a disaster,” said Dr. Alexander Chuchalin, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, who has been researching the link between the health of children and the state