Five years ago, the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health concluded that ill health was contributing to the low level of economic growth in poor countries.1 The landmark report showed that investment in some basic health interventions would lead to substantial economic growth.1 However, the commission did not look at rich countries, where the situation is quite different. Production in poor countries—for example, from agriculture and mining—is much more obviously affected by physical wellbeing. In addition, the measures to improve health in poor countries, such as immunisation and access to essential drugs, are less complex than those needed to manage the large burden of non-communicable disease in rich countries. Understanding the role of health as a driver of economic growth in Europe is important, given the stated commitment of Europe's governments in March 2000 to make Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge driven economy by 2010.

In this article we summarise the findings of a study that we did for the European Commission examining the link between health and wealth in rich countries. The full report has been published elsewhere,2 and a summary of the methods is available on bmj.com.