Lauren Petrie

Life expectancy in Scotland has fallen for the 3rd year in a row. Figures published show that Scots living in the wealthiest part of the country live significantly longer than those in the poorest.

Average life expectancy at birth is now 76.5 years for males and 80.7 for females which is the lowest of any UK nation. Scottish Labour has branded the figures as “damning” and has called for the Health Secretary, to take immediate action to prevent the figures from dropping further. In areas such as East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire, the life expectancy is higher than the rest of Glasgow City. 

Laura Stirling, a health and social care student and a family support worker to find out how the issue of life expectancy has affected the care home system and what she thinks the government could do to help the care home workers as well as the residents: “People in care homes were unfortunately affected more from covid, due to them being more of a weaker immune system or being ill & covid could have passed rapidly due to the increased numbers of people within a care home. The government should consider everyone’s basic human needs and wellbeing as factors to improve public health and making health care more of a priority”

The turmoil in our NHS and the high cost of living has trapped Scots in a double crisis that is gravely affecting the health of the country. Poverty-related factors, such as the number of individuals who struggle to heat their houses to a tolerable level and the rising cost of necessities like food, could lead to a further decline in life expectancy in the future. Keri Major, a dietitian of City Dietitians, said  “A lot of it is to do with life social expectancy and impacting on how well people can eat as well as making better choices. When they go into supermarkets, they often try healthier options but a lot of people don’t realise that they are more expensive and end up buying packets of crisps and chocolate which have an effect on our diet”.

“A lot more work needs to be done for support from the government especially when it comes to food prices as well as drugs and alcohol. From my point of view, as a nutritionist, when it comes to one meal or one snack, try and think of what you can add to make your meal more nourishing.”

There has also been a decrease in the number of adults who did not take part in any sports or physical activities from 27% in 2007/2008 to 20% in 2019. It has also been highlighted that participating in a physical activity such as walking has increased over time. Danny, a fitness coach spoke about how he is trying to get people back into fitness at his gym,

“The most important thing about a gym is getting people in, people do suffer from gym anxiety and this is due to bigger companies focusing on the number of members they get rather than the community side of things. So having a community spirit in a gym really helps when it comes to the mental health side of things. The age target in our gym is 25-40 and we get people in the gym who have been sober for years and have swapped alcohol for exercise so we make sure that our members have a healthy balance between their social lives and getting enough exercise”

It is clear that they are many contributions to the life expectancy issue in Scotland from fitness to cost of living and the people of Scotland are suffering from it. The question is, how will it take for the government.to support both the people of Scotland and the NHS?