Residents of Glasgow are more likely to suffer from anxiety or have a heart attack than other Scots, regardless of their lifestyle or social circumstances, a report has found.
The Government study claims that an unexplained “Glasgow Effect” means residents of the city are 1.5 times more likely to have a heart attack and 92% more likely to suffer from anxiety.
The report said: “There remained an unexplained ‘Glasgow Effect’ in relation to prevalence of anxiety and doctor-diagnosed heart attack.
“Even after adjusting for socio-economic, behavioural, biological, relationship and social mobility variables, residents of Greater Glasgow and Clyde were nearly one and a half times as likely to have had a doctor-diagnosed heart attack.”
Glasgow
The researchers added that even after taking account of other factors “people living in Greater Glasgow and Clyde still had a 92% higher risk of anxiety than those living elsewhere”.
“For two important outcomes relating to both physical and mental health, no explanation can be derived for the excess risk of doctor-diagnosed heart attack or anxiety,” the report said.
It added: “Further research is needed into the reasons behind the increased levels of anxiety and heart attacks found in Greater Glasgow and Clyde as these are not fully explained by socio-economic circumstances.”
Glasgow
Labour Glasgow Anniesland MSP Bill Butler said the study showed that “more needs to be done to fight poverty”, adding that it “should serve as a wake-up call to politicians”.
He added: “We need a relentless campaign to raise expectations, drive up living standards and encourage people to live healthier lifestyles.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said that health inequalities remained “a significant challenge in Scotland, with the poorest in our society dying earlier and experiencing higher rates of ill health.
“This remains the case whether there is or is not a `Glasgow Effect`.”
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What they call the “Glasgow effect” has puzzled health professionals for years. Glaswegians die earlier, whether it be from heart disease, abuse of alcohol or drugs, or cancer, than anywhere else in the UK. Yet nobody knows why.
Liverpool and Manchester have near identical areas with the same social problems: a history of industrial decline, engrained deprivation, and high, long-term unemployment, plus a history of heavy drinking, smoking, poor diet, reliance on benefits, and damp housing.
But there are 30% more premature deaths in Glasgow, compared with these northern English cities. And now it seems Glasgow’s adult life expectancy rate is on a par with that of the Palestinian territories and Albania. David Walsh, of the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, says there is no clear explanation.
On average, a Glaswegian male aged 65 will die within 13 years, sooner than any other Briton – in Liverpool, for example, an average 65-year-old male will die in 15.7 years.
An average woman in Glasgow will die at the age of 77.5; in Liverpool at the age of 79.2.
“The traditional answer has always been about socio-economic deprivation, and the underlying cause and effects of de-industrialisation.
“And we’ve lost an awful lot of industrial jobs with the closure of the shipyards and so on,” Walsh said. “They’re massively important factors, but they don’t explain everything. There’s something else.”
While Glasgow has very prosperous areas, the poorest districts suffer multi-generational unemployment and deep-rooted poverty, marked out for decades by substandard housing.
A recent study by Walsh’s centre proposed 17 theories, including greater alienation, family breakdown, gender relations and parenting differences, sectarianism, climate (Glasgow is cold and wet), the concentration of deprivation, and even genetic factors. Some suspect the city’s poor climate and diet affects Glaswegians’ vitamin D levels.
Another theory mentioned in the study, Accounting for Scotland’s excess mortality: towards a synthesis, was “political attack” in the 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher’s policies led to a dramatic decline in the city’s traditional heavy engineering, forcing up joblessness, alienation, social breakdown, and substance abuse.
The city’s mortality rates are improving, but more slowly than other parts of the UK. The average has risen from 71.9 in 2003-05, to 73.1 in 2007-09 for men, and from 77.9 to 78.9 for women. Poor housing is being systematically demolished and replaced, while preventative health and anti-smoking projects are heavily funded. Even so, “turning the corner isn’t going to happen overnight,” said Walsh.