Alcoholism chops more than 10 years off life expectancy of South Africans.
South African men who use drugs cut short their lives by about a dozen years, says a new study.Scientists looked at data on more than a million medical aid patients, and say excess mortality may be worse in public sector.
Because people who rely on the public health sector “may be at higher risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes than employed and insured people who access private services”, say the authors of the paper, the toll of mental illness on life expectancy may be even higher. “Although most mental disorders do not lead directly to death, they increase the risk of suicide, accidental death and premature mortality from physical illness,” they say.
“Life expectancy after diagnosis of any mental disorder was 3.8 years shorter for men and 2.2 years shorter for women when compared to beneficiaries of the same age and sex without diagnoses,” say the authors, half of whom are from South Africa. Overall, men with mental illness lose more life years than women, and the researchers said at least part of the reason was higher mortality from accidents and suicides among men with bipolar and substance use disorders.
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