Scots and Irish living in England 'twice as likely to die of alcohol abuse'

Published on Tuesday 17 March 2009 09:17

EX-PAT Scots and Irish people living in England and Wales are twice as likely to die of alcohol abuse than locals, a study said today.

Researchers at Edinburgh University said a greater drinking culture was one of the probable reasons why Scottish and Irish people were at increased risk of dying from liver cancer and other diseases linked to alcohol intake.

Health experts used statistics on deaths in England and Wales from 1999 to 2003 and the 2001 census to gather information on a person's country of birth and their likelihood to die from an alcohol-related condition.

They found that deaths linked to alcohol were higher for those originally from Scotland or Ireland, when compared with the rest of the population in England and Wales.

Dr Neeraj Bhala, a university research fellow who led the study, said: "These groups have a greater culture of drinking than their counterparts in England and Wales.

"That translates into health-related problems and, consequently, to alcohol-related deaths.

"Our findings show significant differences in death rates by country of birth for both alcohol-related deaths and liver cancer. We now need to focus on developing new policy, research and practical action to help address those differences."

The study also found that people born in India who were now living in England and Wales had similar rates of alcohol-related death as those born in Scotland and Ireland.

Dr Bhala said this could be partly due to the fact that deaths from liver cancer due to viral hepatitis were more common in ethnic minority communities.

The study is published in the Journal of Public Health.