April 23, 2007 

Eastern Europeans are happier and healthier than ever before as a result of a better diet and economic success. Drinking and smoking less hasn't hurt either.

Young Eastern Europeans may be leaving their countries in droves to make their fortunes elsewhere in the European Union, but those left behind have apparently never had it so good. Slovaks, Czechs and Poles are healthier and happier than ever before, new studies show. 

Life expectancy in Slovakia has increased to just over 70 years for men -- up from 67 in the 1980s -- according to new statistics from the country's Public Health Bureau, while the average life expectancy for Slovak women is now 77.9 years, up from a 1980s lifespan of some 75 years.

Reflecting increased awareness of health and diet, Slovaks are drinking less beer. Slovaks drank a mere 7.4 liters of pure alcohol per capita in 2003, slightly more than half of the 13.7 liters they each quaffed in 1991.

Poles, too, are living longer, to the ripe old age of almost 71 for men and 79 for women on average -- both about four years more than under Communism -- according to figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). One explanation for their longer lives could be that they are also smoking less. Back in the bleak 1980s, 15 million Poles smoked out of a population of 38 million -- now the country has a mere 8 million smokers.

Women in particular are taking better care of their health, getting check-ups more often, meaning health problems are being recognized earlier.

Czechs too are happier than ever, with a massive 81 percent of the population describing themselves as satisfied. They too are living longer, with life expectancy figures similar to Poland, partly as a result of a healthier diet containing less fat and more vitamins. 

"The increase in quality of life as a result of the booming economy and improved education has had a positive effect on people's state of health," comments Ivan Rovny, head of the Institute of Public Health in Bratislava, Slovakia.

However health officials in Slovakia warn that there is still some way to go. Rates of cancer and circulatory diseases are rising, and Slovaks are still eating too much animal fat and not enough fresh fruit and vegetables.

And, in a sign that prosperity brings its own problems, the Czechs and the Slovaks came fourth and seventh respectively in a recent study of obesity in Europe -- which was topped by the Germans. 

However life expectancies in Western Europe are still a number of years higher than those in the former communist bloc. Women in France, for example, live to the ripe old age of 83.8 while French men can expect to head for the great beyond after 76.7 years.