Politicians in Aotearoa NZ live longer than other Kiwis and the gap keeps widening

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Politicians in Aotearoa NZ live longer than other Kiwis and the gap keeps widening

From the Public Health Expert

Tuesday 11 October 2022, 03:10 PM

Politics, gallery, bench, chamber, government. Marco Oriolesi

[Image: Marco Oriolesi]

This Public Health Expert blog, written by Nick Wilson and Jennifer Summers, is republished with permission of the University of Otago.

A just published study examined the lifespan of politicians in 11 high-income democratic countries – including Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ). The NZ politicians were found to live at least 5 years longer than the general NZ population (age and gender matched) and this gap has been growing since 1950. One of the likely reasons is the lower smoking rate of NZ politicians compared to the rest of the population. Perhaps it is time for NZ politicians to share the lifespan benefits of their smokefree lives – by ensuring that the current smokefree legislation before Parliament is passed in full?

A just published study by Clarke et al1 examined the lifespan of 57,561 politicians in 11 countries where data were available from 1816 to 2017 (Austr

Public Health

Research

Politics

Smoking

Inequity

References

Clarke PM, Tran-Duy A, Roope LS, Stiles JA, Barnett AG. The comparative mortality of an elite group in the long run of history: an observational analysis of politicians from 11 countries. European Journal of Epidemiology 2022;37:891–99.
Ministry for Culture and Heritage. New Zealand’s first woman MP elected. Ministry for Culture and Heritage (Updated 1 September 2021).
Else A. Gender inequalities – Politics and citizenship. Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, (accessed 9 October 2022).
Edwards R, Peace J, Stanley J, Atkinson J, Wilson N, Thomson G. Setting a good example? Changes in smoking prevalence among key occupational groups in New Zealand: evidence from the 1981 and 2006 censuses. Nicotine Tob Res 2012;14:329-37.
Carter KN, Blakely T, Soeberg M. Trends in survival and life expectancy by ethnicity, income and smoking in New Zealand: 1980s to 2000s. N Z Med J 2010;123:13-24.
Blakely T, Woodward A, Pearce N, Salmond C, Kiro C, Davis P. Socio-economic factors and mortality among 25-64 year olds followed from 1991 to 1994: the New Zealand Census-Mortality Study. N Z Med J 2002;115:93-7.
Blakely T, Kawachi I, Atkinson J, Fawcett J. Income and mortality: the shape of the association and confounding New Zealand Census-Mortality Study, 1981-1999. Int J Epidemiol 2004;33:874-83.
Tobias M, Blakely T, Matheson D, Rasanathan K, Atkinson J. Changing trends in indigenous inequalities in mortality: lessons from New Zealand. Int J Epidemiol 2009;38:1711-22.
Teng AM, Atkinson J, Disney G, Wilson N, Sarfati D, McLeod M, Blakely T. Ethnic inequalities in cancer incidence and mortality: census-linked cohort studies with 87 million years of person-time follow-up. BMC Cancer 2016;16:755.
Woodward A, Blakely T. The Healthy Country? A History of Life and Death in New Zealand. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2014.
Inwood K, Oxley L, Roberts E. Physical well-being and ethnic inequality in New Zealand prisons, 1840-1975. Hist Fam 2015;20:249-69.
Ministry of Health. Life expectancy.
Blakely T, Carter K, Wilson N, Edwards R, Woodward A, Thomson G, Sarfati D. If nobody smoked tobacco in New Zealand from 2020 onwards, what effect would this have on ethnic inequalities in life expectancy? N Z Med J 2010;123(1320):26-36.
Ministry of Health. Proposals for a Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan. Wellington: Ministry of Health, 2021.

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