Stato di salute degli italiani e prospettive di spesa sanitaria e farmaceutica

Abstract

In december 2000 the Italian National Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) published some extracts from the latest statistical survey about the state of health and the resort to medical services in Italy. The research is based on a sample of 52.300 italian families. Since 1980 the average lifetime in Italy grew five years longer: today the average expectancy for a man is 76 years old, and for a woman is 82 years old. All these deep demographic transformations involve an important increase in the chronic-degenerative pathologies. This rise will take up a great deal of public and private health resources. The most frequent chronic-degenerative pathologies are arthrosis or arthritis (18% of italian people) and the high blood pressure (11,5%). After the age of 45, the chronic-degenerative pathologies show a clear growth: some diseases are prevalent in women (e.g. osteoporosis), other prevail in men (e.g. chronic brochitis and stomach ulcer). To better understand the intensity of the resort to medical services, the statistical survey also consider the perception of the health state in Italy. The overall analysis show that the drug consumption (and the health resources consumption generally) is based on a complexity of social and cultural elements; therefore in some particular areas the control of the medical expenditure is more diffucult then in others.