Virus worsens mortality gap

The mortality rate for Scots in the most deprived areas is almost twice as high as it is for those in the most affluent communities – with the coronavirus pandemic appearing to have increased the gap, a report has found.

The National Records of Scotland (NRS) noted that in the most deprived areas of Scotland the overall death rate was 1.9 times higher than in the least deprived areas.

Rates for drug-related deaths were 18.4 times higher in the poorest areas, when compared with the least deprived communities, the Scotland’s Population 2020 report revealed.

Meanwhile, the rate of alcohol-specific death was 4.3 times higher, the rate of deaths by suicide were three times greater and Covid-19 death rates were 2.4 times higher in the most deprived areas.

The report highlighted the “huge gap in healthy life expectancy for people in the most and least deprived areas”.

Men in the poorest parts of Scotland have a healthy life expectancy – the number of years they can expect to live in good health – of just 47 years, compared with 72.1 years for men in the least deprived areas.

For women the gap is slightly smaller, though females in the richest areas can expect to enjoy more than 21 years more of good health than their counterparts in the most deprived areas, where the healthy life expectancy is 50.1 years, compared to 71.6 for the most affluent communities.

“Mortality rates are normally higher in more deprived areas,” the report said, adding that “Covid-19 appears to be increasing this effect”.

“The general mortality rate in the most deprived areas is almost twice the rate in the least deprived areas.

“However, the mortality rate for Covid-19 in the most deprived areas is around 2.4 times as high. This figure was 2.1 in the early stages of the pandemic.

“This means the gap in mortality rates between the most and least deprived areas has increased as the pandemic has progressed.”

The report added that “many of the risk factors for Covid-19 are more common in more deprived areas, for example, diabetes, obesity and lung disease”.

Pete Whitehouse, director of statistical services at NRS, said: “Our report on Scotland’s population in 2020 shows that the death rate from all causes in the most deprived areas of Scotland is nearly double the death rate of people in our least deprived areas.

“The difference in death rates is higher for drug-related deaths, alcohol-specific deaths, suicides, and Covid-19.”

VIRAL LOAD: Covid street art by the artist known as Rebel Bear in Glasgow.