Month: February 2017

The Glasgow Effect

 

The Glasgow Effect is a report exploring the reasons for the poor health status of Glasgow and why, when compared to equally deprived UK cities, Glasgow has a shockingly high level of premature mortality.

The report looks at many statistics for Glasgow – including poverty (fig.1 and fig.2) and mortality rates (fig.3 and fig.4) – and compares them to similar statistics for two other similarly deprived cities, Manchester and Liverpool. By comparing the three cities it becomes easier to understand ‘The Glasgow Effect’ as although the cities display similar levels and patterns of deprivation, the number for premature mortality is much higher in Glasgow. As stated in the report, “deaths among Glaswegians (relative to residents of Liverpool and Manchester) 27% higher in relation to lung cancer, 32% higher for external causes, almost 70% higher for suicide, 2.3 times higher for alcohol-related causes, and almost 2.5 times higher for drug-related poisonings.”

Perhaps these shocking statistics presenting the high number of premature deaths could also be related to Scottish Culture. When many people think of Scottish Culture they immediately think of a variety of unhealthy food and drink. Irn Bru, Whiskey, Tablet and deep fried food to name a few. Not only are these damaging to our health but many unhealthy food and drink is available at the touch of a button. With the introduction of takeaway apps and delivery services, we don’t even need to leave our house to get access to such foods. In addition to this, binge drinking is also a serious problem in Scottish Culture. Many people nowadays tend not to drink in moderation but drink to get drunk. This, for most people, involves consuming unhealthy amounts of alcohol.

 

 

 

Are Scottish People Healthy?

 

I find this question to be incredibly broad and I don’t think there is a definite answer to the question. There are many people in Scotland who live an incredibly healthy lifestyle – exercising daily, not smoking or using drugs, and eating a balanced diet. On the other hand, many people live very unhealthy lives – binge drinking, smoking, rarely exercising and eating unhealthy food.

In today’s lecture, we spoke about how unhealthy habits established in childhood often contribute to dietary habits, smoking, alcohol use and inactivity. As a future teacher, I think it is incredibly important to encourage children to live a healthy and active lifestyle.

The ‘Glasgow Effect’ is a government paper which explores different equally deprived UK cities and how they each experience different health outcomes. The study compares various groups in Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool, showing that although all three cities show almost identical levels of deprivation, the results in health largely differ.

The results highlight that all-cause mortality in deaths under 65 for Glasgow is more than 30% higher compared to Manchester and Liverpool. Glasgow was also seen to have a higher percentage (14%) in the all deaths category with a higher suicide rate and alcohol/drug related death rate out of the three cities.

These results emphasize that despite the three cities showing almost identical levels of deprivation, Glasgow has the most problems in regards to: binge drinking, drug addiction and suicide. To provide fuel to the fire, Scotland as a whole is seen as the unhealthiest country in Europe, we have extremely poor health habits in regards to eating right and exercising regularly. This though, is just seen to be part of Scottish culture, with the famous ‘deep fried Mars bar’ coming to mind, each possibly playing an influence in the results of the ‘Glasgow Effect’.

I believe that although, Scotland as a country is deemed the unhealthiest country in Europe, it is important to remember that not everyone in Scotland has that mind-frame. It is all to do with attitude towards health in general as well as an individual’s socio-economical background. The government are taking precautions and setting new legislations to help the young people of Scotland, providing more opportunities for them to take part in sport and to gain the information they need about healthy eating and diets.

‘The Glasgow effect’ is a term used to describe the relationship between Glasgow and poor health and deprivation. After reading the document I discovered that the whole idea of the document is related to income deprivation, age deprivation and sex deprivation but the main findings of the research were closely linked to deprivation overall. The study shows that Glasgow’s levels and patterns of deprivation are almost identical to those of the two other large UK cities, Liverpool and Manchester. however, despite the similarity in deprivation in these areas, Glasgow morality rates are significantly higher than Liverpool and Manchester. The findings show that lung cancer has a 27% higher mortality rate in Glasgow than the other two cities. This trend is the same for suicide, Glasgow has a 70% higher mortality rate than Manchester and Liverpool. Two other higher mortality rates in Glasgow than Manchester and Liverpool are drug and alcohol related deaths with alcohol related deaths being 2.3 times higher (alcohol) and 2.5 times higher (drugs) than Manchester and Liverpool.

Research has also show that ‘The Glasgow effect’ is not something that has always been a prominent feature in Scottish health and deprivation. Research has shown that mortality rates were not always higher than Liverpool and Manchester and that Glasgow rates can be seen improving more slowly than rates in Manchester and Liverpool in the latter part of the 20th century. This suggests that ‘The Glasgow effect’ is a relatively recent phenomenon.

Given the research carried out and considering Scottish culture, it could be determined that ‘The Glasgow effect’ could be caused by many health factors and choices/behaviours such as binge drinking, excessive alcohol consumption, love of fried food, poor diet and a lack of exercise. Cultural and/or social influences clearly contributes to the quality of life and the lifestyle that people lead within certain parts of the country and therefore significantly contributes to ‘The Glasgow effect’.

 

 

Considering my own opinion and after looking into ‘The Glasgow effect’, I believe that as a whole country generalisation, we as a country are not a healthy country, however, this is down to the individual and the individual’s choices and behaviours. In general, I do not think that Scotland is as healthy as we generally have a poor diet, a lack of exercise and a tendency to binge drink. This has led to high rates of mortality compared with the rest of Europe which could easily be changed by making small changes to our diet and lifestyle such as eating more fruit and vegetables, which has been shown to increase our quality of life and benefit our body significantly. We could also drink in moderation and not drink to just get drunk all the time. By including physical exercise such as more walking or playing sports could also help reverse the effects of ‘The Glasgow effect’.

 

The Glasgow Experience has a link between deprivation and health. In the UK Glasgow is not the only place that is experiencing both high levels of deprivation and poor health. Although Scotland is ranked the most unhealthy country in the UK. This document have two main objectives, one being analysing if there is evidence towards a Glasgow effect and comparing Glasgow with other cities to evaluate the measure of deprivation and poor health. The second one being developing data that co-insides with small areas in the three cities, that are Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester being almost identical with deprivation in 2005 as almost a quarter of the population of the total population is classed as having a deprived income. Due to this Glasgow has a higher rate of deaths resulting in 15% more than any other cities.

Scotland is branded for many things which play a part in the decreasing health making diets very poor in many cities such as Glasgow. Such things we are branded for is, fried food such as the famous fried mars bar, irn-bru, shortbread as well as fast foods being so accessible and so on, all of these being having there effects on poor the diet people have making their health dwindle.

In reading this document I would say that Scotland is not healthy due to what we are known for, although I don’t think it was all parts of Scotland that are unhealthy but overall it would be a lie to say we are healthy.

The ‘Glasgow effect’ basically talks about the unexplained link between poor health and the low life expectancy of people living in Glasgow. This compares to those who live in the rest of Great Britain and Europe. Despite, lower income levels are usually associated with poor health and a shorter life expectancy, it has been proven … Continue reading At risk behaviours- ‘The Glasgow effect’ →