Islands' macho lifestyle mirrors the big smoke

GREATER Glasgow and the Western Isles are rated as being among the worst five areas in the UK for life-expectancy rates, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

While the two regions north of the Border may appear to have very different lifestyles, Rhoda Grant, Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands, said they actually have a number of cultural factors in common which affect health and wellbeing.

Glasgow City's life-expectancy rate for men is 71.1 while for the Western Isles it is 73.5 years.

"There is a real male-female divide in the Western Isles. Some of the more traditional areas can be far less healthy with men drinking and smoking to excess similar to those in Glasgow City," said Ms Grant.

"It is not seen as macho to be taking care of your health in the same way as women. Women in the Western Isles are much more switched on to looking after themselves and tend not to be involved in the ladette culture of heavy smoking and drinking."

Ms Grant added that the funding allocations given to health boards did not compensate for deprivation and rurality, meaning that health boards in remote areas could not make the same savings as other health boards, a factor which impacted on life expectancy.

Women in the Western Isles have a life expectancy of 82 years - not far off the highest rate of 83.1 years for East Dunbartonshire. Glasgow City's rate for women is 77.5 years.

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For Edinburgh City, life expectancy for men and women in 2007-9 was 76.9 and 81.5 years respectively.

This was up from 2003-5, where the life expectancy rates were 75.5 years and 80.6 years respectively for men and women.

The ONS statistics also examine life expectancy at the age of 65. In Scotland, life expectancy improved from 15.5 years to 16.5 years for men and from 18.3 years to 19.1 years for women between 2003-5 and 2007-9.

In 2003-5 life expectancy at age 65 for both males and females was highest in Shetland at 16.9 years for men and 20.5 years for women.

Shetland consistently had the highest life-expectancy at age 65 over the period and in 2007-9 it had risen to 18 years for men and 20.7 for females.

SHN ROSS