Trends in health inequality
What is life expectancy in Scotland and the UK?
Until around the 2010s there was evidence that overall life expectancy was rising in Scotland and the UK. Between 2012-2014 life expectancy began to stall. By 2018-20 life expectancy had started to fall. In 2023, National Records of Scotland reported that life expectancy has fallen by 3 weeks for males and 5.7 weeks for females since 2019-2021.
What is Healthy Life Expectancy?
Life expectancy at birth, is often recorded as HLE or years of Healthy Life Expectancy. HLE has been widely used from around 2009/10. This change was introduced to bring UK statistics in line with other EU countries.
In 2019-2021, male HLE at birth was 46.3 years for those living in the most deprived areas compared to those living in the least deprived areas at 72.1 years. This was 25.8 years higher for those living in the least deprived areas.
Female HLE at birth was 47.3 years for those living in the most deprived areas compared to 73.1 years in the least deprived areas. This was 25.7 years higher for those living in the least deprived areas.
Trends in deaths from heart disease, cancer and stroke
Another measure of socio-economic health inequalities is in terms of deaths from disease, in particular Scotland’s biggest three killers – heart disease, cancer and stroke.
For many years the number of people in Scotland dying from heart disease, cancer and stroke has been decreasing. Scottish Government statistics show that there are significant socio-economic health inequalities within these statistics, in that a far greater number of people from the most deprived communities die of these three diseases, than the least deprived communities.
Between 2020 and 2021, the mortality rate for heart disease in the most deprived areas increased by 11% whereas the mortality rate fell by 14% in the least deprived areas. This increased the health gap.
For cancer deaths, there is also a significant health gap between people in the most and least deprived areas.