Many people will argue the matter that Scotland is in fact a ‘healthy country’ or an ‘unhealthy country’, people will take into account their own health without looking at the people around them.  From analysing and taking into account the statistics from the Scottish Health Survey I have made generalisations and assumptions based on the question ‘Is Scotland Healthy?’.

Firstly, the Scottish Health Survey proposed the question ‘Would you describe your health as good or very good, bad or very bad?’ From a sample of 4894 adults, 74% of them assessed their health as good and very good with only 8% of them admitting to having a bad or very bad health. Looking at the children statistics out of 1139 children, 95% of children agreed they had a good or very good health and an astounding 1% admitted that they had a bad health. From looking at these statistics I am amazed at the amount of people who have openly admitted to having a healthy diet when Scotland has got such a high mortality rate with a consequence of this being due to peoples health. This does not mean however, that some of these people do not have a good health. Many people in Scotland will have a good healthy lifestyle and likes to exploit that however, I believe some of these people are covering up their bad health.

Mental Health is the first category highlighted in the survey and I feel this is a vital part of a healthy lifestyle. It is agreed that around 1 in 10 adults had two or more symptoms of depression. I personally believe mental health is becoming a huge impact on peoples health in Scotland, many people I know have suffered depression in various ways at some point in their life. 5% of the sample has also admitted to attempting suicide at some point or harming themselves one way or another. Many other issues of health was covered such as child obesity and dental health, they all highlighted in some way this was still happening in Scotland. The support for mental health is forever growing from call lines to help groups in spite of this I still feel mental health is a problem in Scotland that is dampening peoples health.

By looking at the diet of the sample, it highlighted that only 3.2 on average of adults ate the recommended portions of fruit and veg a day and children eating 2.7 portions a day. Another statistic that came to my attention is that over 25% of adults in Scotland in 2013 were classed as obese. In Scotland it is becoming severe issue that every second shop you pass is a take away of some sort with so much of these being fatty foods. Around 34% of children admitted to eating cakes at least twice a week. This shows that many children follow in the foot steps of their parents, the full family suffer because the parents are unwilling to maintain a healthy diet. It is vital to maintain a healthy diet to avoid suffering from heart diseases and various other health problems. In Scotland it is clear that many peoples diet is very unhealthy.

A final aspect is the lack of exercise in Scotland. The survey shows that 64% of adults claim to meet the recommended weekly guidelines of exercise. I feel that this statistic is a positive one as it shows that more than half of the sample admits to exercising weekly and being active. Although it can be argued that half of the sample is not meeting this guideline which shows that many people are not taking in the recommendations of physical health and this will show on their overall health. Again, along with your diet, it is clear that if your parents lack motivation and are unwilling to exercise it is more than likely that you will follow this and not complete the recommended weekly exercise. I personally feel Scotlands physical health needs to increase because of the lack of people attending for example games hall facilities which are now being closed down and giving less opportunities for children to exercise.

Overall, taking into account all of these statistics I personally feel that if you have been brought up around people who are unwilling to eat healthy or exercise this will pass down the line and ultimately decrease your motivation to become healthy. I think it is fair to state that Scotland is not in fact healthy nor unhealthy.