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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Multiple deprivation and excess winter deaths in Scotland | | Author(s) | Stirling G Howieson, M Hogan |
| Journal title | Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, vol 125, no 1, January 2005 |
| Pages | pp 18-22 |
| Source | http://www.rsph.org |
| Keywords | Death rate [statistics] ; Weather conditions ; Winter care ; Poor elderly ; Indicators ; Correlation ; Scotland. |
| Annotation | The recent publication of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) has allowed some tentative statistical correlations to be undertaken to assess the impact poverty may have on mortality and morbidity. From 1989 to 2001, Scotland registered around 51,600 excess winter deaths (EWDs). EWDs are taken as the additional deaths from December to March than occurred in the preceding and subsequent 4-month periods. Almost all of these EWDs were in the 65+ population. This represents 50 more deaths per day in January than in July. The SIMD measured five criteria by region: income; employment; health and disability; education, skills and training; and geographical access to services. Glasgow was the most deprived region with an SIMD score of 46.88, and East Dunbartonshire the least deprived, with a score of 9.07 for the over 65s. The chance of becoming an EWD ranges from 1 in 36 in Glasgow to 1 in 68 in North Ayrshire. The SIMD is positively correlated with EWD by region (0.35 at 5% confidence level). This correlation appears to go against the influence of climatic variations, house type, energy efficiency and access to the gas network which favours other areas. Although some of the additional winter deaths have been ascribed to outdoor cold exposure - exacerbated by inappropriate clothing or culturally determined behaviour - the majority of EWDs are premature and essentially preventable if older people can be kept warm in their homes during the winter months. (RH) |
| Accession Number | CPA-050209201 A |
| Classmark | S5: R4: IB: F:W6: 3RI: 49: 9A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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