Sometimes referred to in the media as a ‘Scottish effect’ or ‘Glasgow effect’, the excess has been defined as higher mortality in Scotland compared with elsewhere in Britain over and above that explained by socioeconomic deprivation. Previous research, for example, has shown that premature mortality in Glasgow is 30% higher than in Liverpool and Manchester, cities with similar socioeconomic profiles and histories of deindustrialisation.
The report, published today (15th May 2016) by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health and NHS Health Scotland, in collaboration with the University of the West of Scotland and University College London, reaffirms that the principal explanation for poor health in Glasgow and Scotland (as in other societies) relates to the well understood effects of poverty and deprivation (and related factors such as deindustrialisation). And the evidence shows that the additional, excess, levels of mortality are best explained by a greater vulnerability to those factors, caused by a series of historical decisions and processes.
Lead author, Dr David Walsh from the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, said, “Economic policies matter for population health. An assessment of evidence from the post-war period onwards strongly suggests that an historic toxic combination of decades of adverse housing conditions, poor urban planning decisions, UK government Scottish Office regional economic policy, and different local government responses have led to worse health in Glasgow and Scotland than in other, similar, parts of the UK”.
Dr Gerry McCartney from NHS Health Scotland, said, “To address this longstanding issue of excess mortality, we need to take preventative action by learning from the consequences of previous approaches. There is a clear need to target resources at the high level of need highlighted by the report”.
Professor Chik Collins from the University of the West of Scotland said, “Excess mortality in Scotland in many ways reflects past political decisions and the resultant economic and social policies. The regional policies of the 1960s and 1970s in particular created vulnerabilities which were then impacted and exacerbated by later policies of both central and local government”.
Links
Glasgow Centre for Population Health