Scotland’s Chief Statistician has published the latest 'Long-term Monitoring of Health Inequalities: Headline Indicators' report. The report notes that there has been no statistically significant changes to the gap in healthy life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas for men or women since 2009-2010. The gap in healthy life expectancy between Scotland’s least deprived and most deprived communities is 26 years for men and 22.2 years for women.
Responding to the report, Prof Derek Bell, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, said:
“It is worrying that there has been no progress towards addressing the significant gaps in healthy life expectancy between the most and least deprived communities in Scotland. The figures highlight the urgent need to improve the social and economic conditions in which people live in order to tackle poor health.
“We know that the causes of poor health are wide ranging and policies to address them must look far beyond the healthcare sector. Not only do these inequalities impact on individual’s lives and those of their families and communities, but also on our healthcare services. Work to address inequalities and deprivation combined with investment in prevention may help to reduce the burden on both hospitals and general practice in Scotland.
“We support the Faculty for Public Health in Scotland’s report, ‘Healthy Lives, Fairer Futures', which identified eight priorities for the Scottish Government to focus upon to improve the circumstances which lead to poor health or social exclusion. The College is committed to working with the Faculty and other organisations to embed actions that address the social determinants of health.”
