Scottish life expectancy stalls amid spiralling drug deaths
● Slowdown in reducing heart disease fatalities is also blamed for dip in figures
Scotland’s spiralling drug deaths have contributed to a fall in life expectancy levels across the country in recent years, new figures show.
The country now has lower life expectancy levels than the majority of EU countries and all the more affluent countries in the “EU 15” countries.
A slowdown in improvements in deaths resulting from heart disease has been the main factor in the downward shift in how long scots are expected to live, according to the figures released by the National Records for Scotland.
The figures also reveal Scotland’s fertility rate is the lowest in the UK and falling at a faster rate than al lot herukcountries. the increase in drugs deaths in recent years has been a key factor in the fall in life expectancy, along with growing rates of dementia as a result of an ageing population.
The drugs figures prompted fresh calls for decriminalisation in Scotland to tackle the problem through greater supervision of addicts.
The small decline in life expectancy means the average age a man is predicted to reach in Scotland is now 77, while a woman can expect to live to 81.1. This marks a small decline of 0.1 years in the latest figures for 2015-17 published by NRS.
The findings underline the stark impact of Scotland’s dramatic rise in drugs deaths which soared by 27 per cent to reach 1,187 last year, the highest in the EU by a considerable margin. Tory health spokesman
Miles Briggs said: “This shocking revelation highlights the national scandal that is Scotland’s high number of drug deaths.
“Too many Scots lives are being destroyed by addiction while the SNP continues to pursue its misguided maintenance policy.”
He added; We have also spelled out our approach to tackling addiction and set a target to reduce drug deaths by 50 per cent over the next five years.
“This is a crisis that the Scottish Conservatives are committed to solving but the SNP must act.”
Public health minister Joe Fitzpatrick has praised the “bold move” taken in Portugal to decriminalise drugs. But he said the SNP administration in Scotland was unable to follow this approach because drugs policy is reserved to Westminster which won’t budge on the creation of so called “shooting galleries” which would allow addicts to inject under supervision.
Liberal Democrats health spokesman Alex Cole-hamilton MSP said the revelations bring the drugs situation into “sharp focus”. He added: “We have the worst record for drug deaths in Europe, which is now taking its toll on people’s life expectancy. It’s time to decriminalise drugs and help users get the support they need.”
The decline in life expectancy has been happening across the EU and many major developed countries, but the reasons have been so far unclear.
Paul Lowe, the register general for Scotland, said: “Life expectancy in Scotland has been increasing over the long term, but recent estimates indicate that it has stopped improving.
“The largest causes of the stall in life expectancy are the slowing of improvements seen in the reduction of deaths from heart disease and increases in drug related deaths.”
Deprivation was found to have a strong effect on life expectancy,withfiguresshowing girls born in 2015-17 in the 10 per cent most deprived areas of Scotland can expect to die 9.6 years earlier than those who live in the 10 per cent least deprived areas.
For males, the difference in life expectancy between the 10 per cent most deprived and 10 per cent least deprived areas is 13 years.
Scottish Government external affairs secretary Fiona Hyslop said Scotland faces “challenges” over its population. She said: “Against a backdrop of a record fall in the birth rate, Scotland’s population is ageing with a shift in population from the west to east and declining population in rural areas.
“With all of Scotland’s population growth predicted to come from migration, the impact and risk of Brexit means that we may not have a large enough working age population to support public services, industries and our economy. The cornerstones of a strong economy are productivity, participation and population. We need to grow our population to ensure we have sustainable, vibrant and resilient communities and drive improvements in inclusive growth.”
The report found the number of deaths has continued to increase, with 58,503 registered in 2018, a 1.1 per cent increase on 2017.
The leading causes of death in Scotland are heart attacks which responsible for 11.3 per cent of all deaths, as well as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, responsible for 11.1 per cent of deaths.
Cancer would be the leading cause of death with 16,256 deaths last year. But different types are measured separately under figures. Lung cancer is the third most common type of death, accounting for one on four cancer deaths.
For younger people, the leading cause of death for those aged 20-49 years is listed as accidental poisoning.
“We have the worst record for drug deaths in Europe, which is now taking its toll on people’s life expectancy”
JOE FITZPATRICK