REGIONAL VARIATIONS IN HEALTH AND MORBIDITY
Revision suggestion
– Try marking all the descriptions on an outline map and annotating it with
explanations. Then try doing it again from memory.
NB: Links between
illnesses and factors such as age, income, wealth etc are difficult to
establish. Remember, just because lots of people in a poor area are ill it
doesn’t necessarily mean than they are ill because they are poor or vice versa.
It is just a possible reason it does not provide evidence 100%, there could be
many other factors involved.
NATIONAL SCALE – THE UK
- Variations exist for some aspects of morbidity but not others.
- Scotland has highest rates of lung cancer, heart disease, strokes, alcohol and drug problems and the shortest life expectancy (75 for men and 80 for women). It also has a high incidence of melanoma.
- There is also a high prevalence of smoking in Scotland and a high percentage of sun bed users.
- Glasgow has the shortest life expectancy in the UK.
- This could be due to high rates of depression, low incomes, drug and alcohol abuse.
- Wales has the highest incidence of breast, prostrate and bowel cancer
- This could be partly explained by the ageing population but it is also thought that there is not more people with prostate cancer but just more people diagnosed as more men tend to be tested regularly in Wales than the rest of the UK.
- Northern Ireland has the highest rate of respiratory diseases
- England has the lowest rates of illness and the longest life expectancy (78 for men and 82 for women)
- This could be due to greater affluence, better weather etc
REGIONAL SCALE - ENGLAND
- The lowest life expectancies are in the NE and NW, the highest are the SE and SW.
- Similarly, for most illnesses health is poorer in the N of England and better in the S.
- This could be because there are higher levels of deprivation and binge drinking in the North
- The South on the other hand has lower levels of binge drinking and more physically active adults.
- Obesity is highest in the East and West midlands and lowest in the South East
- This could be due to less wealth/more unemployment
- Depression is more common in the North than the South.
- This could be due to rural isolation, less sunshine, more unemployment, poorer diet etc
LOCAL SCALE - LONDON
- Highest incidences of TB, crime and drug misuse in the UK
- This could be because it’s a large urban area with people living close together (disease spread more easily), some of them deprived (increased crime rates, also drugs more easily available).
- Also high numbers of children living in poverty
- Southwark has an abnormally high infant mortality rate of 7.4 (compared to 4.6 national average).
- Southwark also has higher rates of deprivation, teenage pregnancy and obese children and lower rates of education than the national average
- However, long life expectancy (Kensington and Chelsea has the highest life expectancy in the UK).
- This could be because of better education (links have been shown between level of education and life expectancy).
Discussion point: Do you think these inequalities will
always be there?
p.s. check out this website: http://longerlives.phe.org.uk/