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Why Is Premature Death So Much Higher In The North?

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ToraToraTora | 10:01 Tue 11th Jun 2013 | News
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22844227
OK there is no doubt more poverty but that should not alone account for it. Is there just a generally less healthy life style?
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Yes, I don't understand that either. If it's an issue with poverty which is usually also linked to smoking, drinking and fast food, that doesn't make any sense either because how can someone in poverty afford such things?
this is a rather circular claim, isn't it? There's an average life expectancy, and half the country will be below it. I don't know why it should be the north, but if it isn't then it will be somewhere else instead.
jno

\\\\ I don't know why it should be the north, but if it isn't then it will be somewhere else instead. \\\\

LOL...true...very true.

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There's a variation in life expectancy jno but I'd expect it to be evenly spread across the country.
Well looking at that map, it would seem 57 years of Seallafield has a lot to answer for.
yes but it would be even more amazing if it was evenly spread because random is ....well.....random!
I would be interested to know if there was any difference between people who were born in the area and spent their childhood there and people who moved into the area and why they moved there, also other potential causes like the weather (colder or wetter) allergens, air pollution and so on.
It is presumably multifactorial, but doubtlessly lifestyle players a major part.
The north contains the towns and cities with the greatest inner city enclaves where poverty and ill health dominant...Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and the south has just parts of London.

Dave..to answer your question as to how they can afford cigarettes,alcohol and fast foods, gives you the answer of priorities.....that is why they are poverty stricken in many cases....combine that with prostitution funding drug habits then you have the long term effects of STD's.

Unemployment, stress and the standard of health at GP level plays it's part.
Please do not inquire as to why i think that GP care is at a lower standard than the rest of the country.

P.S England also fares badly in a EUROPEAN table of premature deaths.
The North is heavily urbanised. A lot of people crammed into an area alongside industry. If you look at a pollution map of the UK, and compare it to high death rate areas, to two coincide.
Does nobody die in Scotland? Maybe free prescriptions is responsible for that.
FOE Report

// Factories are more likely to be found in poorer communities:

662 factories are found in areas with average household income of less than £15,000.
5 factories are found in areas with average household income above £30,000

Similar patterns appear at the regional level:

In London, over 90% of polluting factories are in areas with below average income
In the North East, over 80% of polluting factories are in areas with below average income.

The more factories in an area, the poorer it is likely to be:

In Teesside, one area has 17 factories - and an average household income of just £6,200 - 64% less than the national average.
UK factories release large quantities of health-threatening chemicals. At the time of this study, official data showed that the worst factory - Associated Octel in the South Wirral - had released more than 5,300 tonnes of carcinogens. Overall, factories in the UK had churned out 1.3 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide, and 650,000 tonnes of nitrogen dioxide annually.

We cannot be sure how much ill-health these emissions cause - for any illness could be caused by any number of factors (such as diet, housing or smoking), or factors working together. But these figures show that it is the poorest who are hit hardest by industrial pollution. On top of unemployment and crime, these families and communities face the grime of industrial pollution. Here pollution is as far from a middle class concern as it can get. This pollution adds to the multiple deprivations these communities face, and environmental pollution is a clear component of social exclusion. //
Sqad.... why do you think GP standards are lower here ?


DOI: My GP - ex Paed surg SHO said O God Peter I can feel your liver.
The Surgical reg missed a 15 cm tumour and 10 li of ascites - oops !
and discharged me. (Jun 12) from ter daaaah A+E
I did live to tell the tale
Go to Stoneybutts in Burnley, Shadsworth in Blackburn, or any number of similar areas from Blackpool to Newcastle. Walk in the shoes of people who have no jobs, whose parents never had jobs, whose families have never experienced extended engagement with education, because generations back their folks moved to places as low-paid factory hands. Try to live without a car, to shop efficiently for your family, to avoid the loan sharks. The nearest shops will charge over the odds for everyday items. Heroin is cheaper than beer. The sheer hopelessness of the poverty trap is the greatest shame of modern Britain. Who'd have thought the 21st century would look like this?
Peter

\\\\Sqad.... why do you think GP standards are lower here ? \\\

If you will excuse me, I am going to back out of that one.....I get into enough trouble commenting on the NHS, without adding this topic.........;-)
-- answer removed --
lifestyle plays a large part
This North-South battle never makes any sense whatsoever. There are pockets of wealth in the North, as well as pockets of deprivation in the South. I live in South Wales...is that North or South in a British sense ? What about the run-down Council estates in Bristol, or Plymouth...are they North or South ?

I work with medical statistics every day and smoking is the single biggest cause of ill health and early death. Smoking is always higher with uneducated people, when compared to educated people. If you are uneducated you are much more likely also to have made lifestyle choices which adversely affect your life expectancy.

Smoking as a proportion of the Welsh adult population as a whole is now 23-24%, but if measured amongst the lowest socio-economic part of the population it is over 65%.

This isn't rocket science you know, just common sense. We need to deal with smoking in an effective way, not pussy-footing around, knocking off the odd percentage point every few years.
A curious fact from the TV news: Wokingham has about the lowest rate of premature death yet Bracknell, not far away, has quite a high rate. The tentative explanation was that Bracknell had taken a lot of people from the East End of London. These people brought their already established tendency to an early death with them and so ended up dying early in what was otherwise a longer lived population.
In Cumbria, I suspect that one factor is the abysmal standard of health provision. The Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle has a terrible record, and hospitals in Whitehaven, Workington and Barrow don't fare much better.
taichiperson.........a very good point.......not only Cumbria....

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