During this weeks lecture and tutorials we spoke about at risk behaviour within the society, the main six being;
- Injuries
- Tobacco
- Alcohol
- Sexual Behaviour
- Dietary Patterns
- Lack of Physical Activity
We spoke about the affect that these behaviour have on the society and on your lifestyle. We also looked at the four levels of influence and how they linked to these behaviours; individual/family, school/peers, community, policy/society. Our main points of focus were on ‘The Glasgow Effect’ and ‘To what extent are Scottish people healthy?’, this blog will discuss the two further.
‘The Glasgow Effect’
The Glasgow Effect focuses on investagating why equally deprived UK areas experience different health outcomes. It focuses on comparing factors such as income, health and mortality rates. Briefly The Glasgow Effect states that people living in Glasgow tend to die younger and have poorer health than other place such as Manchester and Liverpool who are equally as deprived.
One reason that the researched thought people in Glasgow were dying so young was due to income. The mortality rate for under 65 year olds in Glasgow was almost 30% higher than the two comparing cities. However after the research was completed they found that the cities being studied were in fact equally deprived in terms of income, with just over 20% of the population in Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool being classed as ‘income deprived’. Thus proving that low income is not the only reason for such a peak in mortality rates in Glasgow.
A second factor investigated in the Glasgow Effect is the lack of physical and healthy lifestyle. In Glasgow alcohol related death are 19.5% higher than Manchester and Liverpool and drug related deaths are 8% higher. This has an ongoing effect, not only for the adults but for the children that are growing up witnessing this and thinking that it is acceptable behaviour to binge drink and take drugs. This does at stated cause a large number of deaths each year and I feel like this has a snowball effect on the younger generations.
In conclusion it appears that there is no definite reason as to why people in Glasgow have this problem surrounding them, there are however many reasons and factors that are suggested – most of which could be rectified.
‘To what extent are Scottish people healthy?’
‘The Sick Man of Europe’, Scotland have unfortunately managed to be tagged with this title. We are notoriously known for binge drinking, smoking and eating deep fried mars bars, and perhaps this is why. Personally I think it is unfair to categorise everyone living here at ‘unhealthy’, although there are many arguments to suggest otherwise.
Linking with this stereotype of what Scottish people eat and drink two thirds of us are overweight or obese. The number of men that are gaining significant weight has risen by 9% since 2003 and with women rising by 13% it would be fair to say that compared to other countries we do have more of a problem with obesity. The NHS Scotland are annually spending roughly £600 million to treat overweight of obese people. However for a number of years now schools around Scotland have started getting the children to run a ‘daily mile’. At any time in the school day children will be asked to put down their pencils and run a mile around the school grounds. I witnessed this on a recent placement I was on and the children reacted very well to it, I would even go as far to say that they enjoyed it. I think this is a great way of making sure that children are getting enough daily exercise, I also think this will encourage them to continue staying active outside school and into their adult life.
On the up side we have managed slowly but surely beat the smoking habits with the introduction of ‘vaping’ and electronic cigarettes. Now 21% of adults smoke in comparison to 28% of adults in 2003. In turn this is decreasing the number of children that are exposed to second hand smoke. This may be due to a law being introduced in 2015 making it illegal for an adults to smoke in a car with a child under the age of 18. From 10% in 2014 to 6% in 2016, this is a step in the right direction for improving the health of children and adults across Scotland. This is one of the reasons as to why I think it is unfair to name everyone in Scotland as being unhealthy, as 79% of adults do not smoke.
Overall I think that compared to other countries Scotland’s health statistics are as a whole lower, although, after research, when asked ‘To what extent are Scottish people healthy?’ I would say that it depends on individual people and factors not just based on the country as a whole.
