Life Expectancy Determined by Place of Birth

A recent study has revealed that the place of birth determines the life expectancy with babies born in cities like Glasgow having far lower life expectancy than those born in south east England .

Average life span of males in Scotland's largest city was found to be 69.3 it was found to be 77 in East Dunbartonshire.

The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy conducted the research and it has ranked the 10 best and worst areas to be born, based on life expectancy figures for 2002 to 2004 and employment rates for 2004 to 2005.

It was found that the employment rate was generally lower in those areas with lower life expectancy.

Recent job figures from March show that about 34.6% of working age Glaswegians had no job. In East Dunbartonshire the figures show less than 18%.

After comparing figures across UK they concluded: Areas that are traditionally wealthy or have high rates of employment also have the highest life expectancy rates." Inverclyde had the second lowest life expectancy, at 70.3 years, and a jobless rate of 32.3%.

This was followed by West Dunbartonshire, with 70.7 years and 29.2%, and Renfrewshire with 71.8 years and 25.4% not working.

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CSP Chief Executive Phil Gray said: "It is sadly still a fact of life that the poorer die younger. "Lifespan should not be determined by wealth in 2006." The society has opined that a failure to offer people rehabilitation when needed was probably one of the reasons why men die at younger ages in Glasgow. They have thereby called for more support services such as physiotherapy to be made available locally.

It argues that getting people back to work sooner reduces the chance of them going on to invalidity benefit and becoming long-term unemployed.

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The Scottish Executive has proposed that the NHS resources must by targeted to bridge the gap between the health of the rich and the poor. Health Minister Andy Kerr has assured that up to £25million would be available to locate people most at risk.