By James Humphrey

Scotland’s life expectancy has decreased for the third year, reaching the lowest levels in nearly a decade. The average life expectancy at birth now being 76.5 years for males and 80.7 years for females which is now also the lowest of any UK nation.

The highest figures for life expectancy in Scotland for women were in East Renfrewshire with 84 years while the highest for men was in East Dunbartonshire with 79.9 years.

The lowest life expectancy in Scotland for men and women was in Glasgow City with 72.9 years and 78.2 years respectively.

The figures released pointed to the fact that Scottish people living in wealthier parts of the country are more likely to live a lot longer than people staying in poorer areas which suggests that economic factors are impacting this decrease.

This is something that Dietitian Kerri Major also believes: “A lot of the reasons for it has to do with deprivation which is affecting people making better choices and when they go into supermarkets, often trying to get healthier options a lot of people don’t realise that they are more expensive”

Research done by Glasgow University Professor Gerry McCartney highlighted that there had been a 6% increase in mortality over the past year due to inflation.

He believes the decrease in life expectancy is due to a combination of factors: “It’s a bit of a perfect storm of ongoing austerity, direct acute covid, indirect effects of lockdown, the covid mitigation measures, and the cost of living”

With a lot of economic factors influencing life expectancy, community midwife Elaine Humphrey believes the Government needs to provide solutions: ” I think the government needs to do a lot more, the government need to address health inequalities, particularly making healthcare more amenable instead of it being like a postcode lottery for some things.” 

She also provides a few ideas for solutions: ” There should be a minimum living wage income, not a minimum wage but the living wage, in a lot of places you’re just skipping underneath it. More funding for areas of deprivation is needed, particularly to improve links to health and different things.” 

While the research and knowledge shown indicate that economic factors do contribute a large amount to the decrease in life expectancy and there are a number of solutions to it, it remains to be seen whether this decrease can be halted and turned into an increase.