Heart and stroke death rates plummet
● Deaths down by almost 40 per cent – but poorer areas still lagging behind
Mortality rates for both heart disease and strokes in Scotland have fallen by almost two-fifths over a decade, figures have revealed.
Death rates fell in the most and least deprived communities of Scotland – but affluent neighbourhoods enjoyed a larger fall than the poorest areas of the country.
The Scottish Government claimed the figures showed their health strategies were achieving “real results for patients”.
Deaths from coronary heart disease in Scotland have fallen by almost 40 per cent over a decade, new figures have revealed.
While tackling heart disease is still a “national clinical priority” for Scotland, NHS figures showed the mortality rate from this fell by 37.6 per cent between 2006 and 2015.
Coronary heart disease claimed the lives of 7,142 people in 2015 while cerebrovascular disease – which develops as a result of problems with blood vessels in the brain and can cause strokes or other health conditions – was the underlying cause in 4,310 deaths.
The death rate from strokes dropped by 37.8 per cent over the same period, while the overall mortality rate for cerebrovascular disease – which can also cause transient ischaemic attacks, known as “mini strokes” and bleeding on the brain – fell by 33.5 per cent.
Heart disease and cerebrovascular disease death rates fell in both the most and least deprived communities, but the drops in the poorer parts of Scotland were not as large as in more affluent areas.
Death rates from coronary heart disease in the leastdeprived areas of the country fell by 38.5 per cent over the ten-year period compared with a drop of 31.3 per cent in the most-deprived areas.
For cerebrovascular disease, the most-deprived areas saw a 24 per cent reduction in mortality rates compared with 33.4 per cent in the least- deprived areas. The report said this “implies a slight widening of relative inequalities”.
Scottish Government public health minister Aileen Campbell said: “These figures show that our strategy for tackling heart disease and stroke is delivering real results for patients.
“Even in our most deprived areas, mortality rates for heart disease have decreased by 31.3 per cent and for stroke by 24 per cent under this government. But we are not complacent – we know that reducing health inequalities is one of the biggest challenges we face.” However, Scottish Labour’s inequalities spokeswoman Monica Lennon accused the Scottish Government of “letting down people living in our most deprived communities”.
She said: “An overall decline in the mortality rate for coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease is, of course, welcome.
“But it is nothing short of a disgrace that, in the 21st century, the richest people in Scotland are still considerably more likely to survive a potentially fatal disease than the poor.”