WHITE Scots have the worst mortality rates of almost any ethnic group in Scotland, according to new research which blows apart the myth that immigrants and minorities put a strain on the NHS.
Nearly every ethnic group, including white Scots born abroad, Asian immigrants and white English people who have settled in Scotland, had significantly lower death rates than white Scots born in Scotland, the rest of the UK or Republic of Ireland.
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People with Chinese, Indian, and Pakistani heritage all had better mortality rates than native white Scots, with the effect most pronounced among first-generation immigrants.
Even adjusting for age and socioeconomic differences, the disparity remained.
Professor Raj Bhopal, an expert in public health at Edinburgh University's Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences, said: “Many people are surprised to learn that ethnic minority populations, and particularly those born abroad, have lower mortality than the Scottish population.
"The findings contradict the widely held perception that immigrants and ethnic minorities are a burden on the health and health care of our society."
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Researchers believe the study must point to the impact of unhealthy Scottish lifestyles, such as higher rates of smoking, alcohol consumption, bad diet and lack of exercise, rather than genes, with white Scots born and brought up abroad - but now resident in Scotland - likely to have benefitted from healthier behaviours growing up.
MALES
(Plots above the dotted line show mortality higher than Scots born in UK/RoI; plots below the line average lower mortality)
Similarly, many immigrant populations will be less likely to smoke, drink, and may have grown up in environments where there was less junk food available and physical activity such as walking was routine. As their offspring adopt more traditional Scottish habits, this "survival advantage" generally diminishes.
FEMALES
However, most of the largest ethnic groups born in Scotland - particularly Pakistani, Indian and male Chinese Scots - still show much lower mortality rates than white Scots, even white Scots born overseas.
Death rates for Chinese males of all ages were almost half those of the white Scottish population.
The findings are based on the most comprehensive study to date, covering the records of 4.26 million people who died in Scotland between 2001 and 2013.
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Prof Bhopal, whose own parents emigrated to Scotland from India in the early 1950s, said it pointed to "something in the way we live life" in Scotland.
He added: "Up to the age of 28, they had had no exposure to passive smoking because in the Punjab where we lived nobody smoked. Alcohol was frowned upon so people didn't drink much.
"They had to walk everywhere, they didn't have a car, so they walked five to ten miles every day. So there were many things about their life that were very healthy. My father's waist at the age of 28 was 28 inches; after ten years in Scotland it was 38 inches."
He added that his father, who died aged 85, had also benefitted from Scotland's NHS.
He said: "If my father lived in India he would not have been expected to life to the age of 85 - the average life expectancy for someone born in India in 1925 would have been 60, 65, 70 at most.
"But, having come to Scotland, he lived to a ripe old age because in the first 28 years of his life he had been protected from so many things, then came to Scotland and benefitted from its very good health services.
"But for his children and his grandchildren? Well, I started drinking when I was 16 - he didn't. And I've had plenty of the Scotch pies in my life."
Prof Bhopal said the study offered the opportunity to improve the health of white Scots by unravelling what is happening in the non-white populations, such as low rates of cancer among Pakistani Scots which he said had been "the biggest surprise".
He said: "We always think of the Pakistani population as having poor health. In many respects, they do - they have very high rates of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, heart attacks.
"But when it comes to their overall mortality they do quite well, and the explanation seems to be that they have very low cancer rates. It's a very good question as to why that should be and I think it deserves more study."
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