A new study from the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit has found that, despite reductions in premature mortality rates in Scotland over the last 30 years, mortality rates in the most deprived areas in 2011 remained higher than in the least deprived areas in 1981.

For those aged 0–64, deaths from circulatory causes more than halved between 1981 and 2011 and cancer mortality decreased by a third (with greater relative declines in the least deprived areas). Over the same period, alcohol- and drug-related causes and male suicide increased (with greater absolute and relative increases in more deprived areas). There was also a significant increase in deaths from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease for those aged 75+.

The paper is published in the European Journal of Public Health.

First published: 14 March 2018

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