PEOPLE in Scotland’s most deprived communities spend more than a third of their life in poor health, according to the latest figures.
Data from National Records of Scotland (NRS) shows the number of years females expect to spend in good health was almost 25 years lower for the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived.
The difference was even greater for males at 26 years.
The NRS report looked at healthy life expectancy (HLE), which is an estimate of the number of years lived in “very good” or “good” general health, based on how individuals perceive their state of health at the time of completing the annual population survey.
The HLE report for 2019-21 found HLE has been decreasing since 2015-2017 for males and since 2014-2016 for females.
In 2019-2021, healthy life expectancy at birth for females was 61.1 years while for males it was 60.4 years.
Maria Kaye-Bardgett, an NRS statistician, said: “It’s important to recognise the difference between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy but also how they impact on each other.
“These figures show that people living in the most deprived communities are more likely to report their health poor – so they have a shorter healthy life expectancy.
“We already know from life expectancy figures that people in the most deprived communities die at younger ages.
“Using both sets of figures we can say that males and females in the most deprived communities spend more than a third of their lives in poor health.
“In comparison, people in the least deprived areas can expect to live around 15% of their lives in poor health and will enjoy longer lives.”
The Orkney Islands had the highest healthy life expectancy for both males and females.
North Lanarkshire had the lowest healthy life expectancy for males and North Ayrshire had the lowest healthy life expectancy for females.
The report found males in the least deprived areas are expected to spend 86.2% of their life in good health compared with 65.5% in the most deprived areas.
Females in the least deprived areas are expected to spend 84.5% of their life in good health compared with 63.1% in the most deprived areas.
HLE for males in the most deprived areas was 44.9 years, while for those in the least deprived areas it was 71 years.
For females, HLE in the most deprived areas was 47.4 years, while in the least deprived areas it was 72.3.
The report said: “For both males and females, the difference in HLE between the most and least deprived areas is much larger than the difference in life expectancy.
“The result of this is that people in the most deprived areas not only have shorter life expectancy and lower HLE, but they also have a smaller proportion of life spent in good health.”
HLE was found to be higher in more rural areas and lower in more urban areas for both males and females, with a 5.5-year difference for males and a 5.6-year difference for females.
