By: Ž. N. (Nova24tv)
The ruling party boasts on Facebook that Slovenia has a high average of healthy life years and that we are above the average of European Union member states. Doctor Igor Muževič, president of the Family Doctors’ Union, warns that in this case it is a deliberate lie. As he says, he had warned the government that this was methodological gymnastics, but in light of their unfounded boasting they simply chose to “ignore” him.
On Friday, Svoboda highlighted on Facebook that “according to Eurostat and Health at a Glance: Europe 2024, Slovenia achieves a higher expected number of healthy life years than the EU‑27 average.” According to them, women in Slovenia on average “live 68.8 healthy years, men 64.6 years – which is more than the European average (63.3 and 62.8 years).”
They emphasise that Slovenia “remains among the countries where healthcare is accessible to all residents and where results are improving.” “More healthy years, better quality of life. Countries such as Germany, Croatia, and Austria are below the EU average in terms of healthy life years, both for men and women,” the ruling party added with satisfaction, attaching a graph to the post.
“What follows below is a deliberate lie by the Freedom party, because they have been repeatedly informed that these are false data based on some very “interesting” methodological gymnastics,” responded critical doctor Igor Muževič, who believes that the party could at least, as the end of its mandate approaches, “stop trampling on the healthcare system, as we are again soon to expect when they vote on the Psychotherapy Act, which introduces the lowest clinical standards for psychotherapists in healthcare in the EU.”
We do not have a high average of healthy life years
According to Muževič, Slovenia does not have a high average of healthy life years; rather, it has a methodologically unique questionnaire that artificially inflates our HLY (healthy life years) value. After the Patient Organisations’ Association warned him about the incredible jump in HLY between 2018 and 2020, he decided in July to turn to the Office for Macroeconomic Analysis (UMAR) and the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ). ‘UMAR wrote in this year’s publication that this happened because the questionnaire was supposedly “more appropriate.” But they did not explain why this would really be a more suitable approach,” Muževič added.
The truth is exactly the opposite, says the doctor. “Before 2020, when Slovenia had poor results in the European framework (even 10 years fewer HLY!), we used a validated questionnaire recommended by Eurostat (GALI),’ he explained, adding that after 2017 Slovenia began gradually “improving” the questionnaire. “The result is that today we have a special Slovenian version of the question, while other countries followed Eurostat guidelines and maintained comparability,” he stated clearly.
Because of the “improvement” fewer people identify as limited
Muževič went on to explain what exactly changed. Since the questionnaire was altered, the question is now: “Are you currently limited due to any health problems in your usual activities?” Here only two answers are possible: ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ If a person answers ‘yes,’ two additional questions follow; if ‘no,’ it is automatically assumed that the individual is not limited. “The consequence is that about half as many people identify as limited.”
The doctor points out that this is not how it is done abroad. There the question is: “To what extent have you been limited for the past six months or longer due to health problems in your usual activities?” Possible answers are: ‘severely limited,’ ‘moderately limited,’ ‘not limited at all.’ ‘All countries that changed the questionnaire to a binary version (YES/NO), which is against Eurostat’s recommendations, experienced a sharp rise in HLY. Countries that abolished this option and returned to the recommended scale experienced a sharp drop in HLY,” Muževič emphasised.
According to him, Germany proves this point: when in 2015 they introduced the YES/NO option, HLY rose sharply. But when in 2022 they returned to the scale (‘severely limited,’ ‘moderately limited,’ ‘not limited at all’), HLY drastically fell. “A similar thing happened in Sweden, where the change in 2022 caused a drop of 4–6 years,” he added. While the government ignored warnings, Muževič says that after extensive correspondence and a live meeting, NIJZ assured him that the questionnaire will be corrected in the future.