Healthy life expectancy falls to a near ten-year low
/This article was featured in the SCDC Weekly -20th August
The time people in Scotland spend in good health has fallen to a near ten-year low, with a 14-year difference between the areas with the longest and shortest healthy life expectancy.
The statistics, published by National Records of Scotland, show that for 2021-23 average healthy life expectancy at birth was 60.0 years for females and 59.6 years for males - figures which are both lower than they were in 2013-15.
The time people spend in good health is tied closely to where they live. People living in North Lanarkshire and North Ayrshire can, on average, expect just 52.5 years healthy life expectancy, compared with 66.6 years for Perth and Kinross.
This fall in healthy life expectancy is part of a trend of worsening health inequalities which separate research has identified as being influenced by austerity policies following the 2010 UK general election.
The Scottish Government and COSLA recently published the Population Health Framework, which sets out how Scotland will aim to improve ill health and reduce these health inequalities over the next decade.
However, these shameful and avoidable figures show just how pressing Scotland's health inequalities crisis is, and why it’s crucial that we take focused and effective action, led by community priorities, to reverse this trend.
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