SCOTLAND’S health inequalities start at birth. A child born in a nice suburb can expect to live into their 80s, whereas there is every chance a child born in a deprived part of the country will die in their 50s, a victim of bad diet, poverty, smoking, drinking, and a public policy which has still not worked out what to do about it all.
Now a new study at Glasgow University has added even more disturbing details to the scandal by ranking mortality rates by occupation. The study compared the mortality rates of those in professional jobs with those in low-paid and unskilled jobs and found there was a huge difference. In most occupations, mortality rates have fallen but in some, they are stagnant and, most worrying of all, in others, the mortality rates have increased.
As one of the authors of the study, Dr Vittal Katikireddi, points out, the new research highlights once again the link between bad health and poverty. Scotland, says Dr Katikireddi, must pay attention to improving health amongst people who are unemployed or working in low-skill jobs.
What this means in practice is that Government needs to do more about tackling the social and economic problems underlying the health gap, such as low pay and the attainment gap in education. Perhaps then we can begin to hope that one day children born in Scotland will have roughly equal chances of living a long life.
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