30 April 2010

British Women 'More Likely To Die By 60'

British women are ranked high in the league table of premature death, research has revealed.

Women are more likely to die early in the UK than in virtually every other western European country. The death rates of women in Britain are on a par with those in Slovenia and Albania.

Men in the UK fare better, according to a worldwide analysis of mortality between 1970 and 2010.

Their risk of dying before the age of 60 is typical of that for western Europe.

The findings emerged after University of Washington scientists studied data from 187 countries to work out the probability of a 15-year-old dying before he or she hit 60.

In the UK, 58 deaths per 1,000 among women were before the age of 60, while for men the figure stood at 93.

In western Europe only Danish and Belgian women had a higher risk than those in the UK.

Professor Danny Dorling, an expert in health inequalities from Sheffield University, said the poor performance of the UK was down to health inequalities.

"We have some of the worst health outcomes in our poorest areas in the whole of Europe."

Professor Alan Maryon Davis, president of the Faculty of Public Health, agreed health inequalities were playing a major role, pointing out the UK had relatively high rates of smoking and drinking.

The study also looked at historical data to work out death rates going back to 1970 to see whether countries were improving or getting worse.

Globally, women fared best, with early death rates among them falling by 34% compared with a 19% decline among men between 1970 and 2010.

Factors affecting death rates included the 'disease of affluence', socio-economic development, better health technologies, social dysfunction in the aftermath of the Soviet Union and the HIV epidemic, said experts.

Australia saw some of the biggest cuts in mortality, while the Aids epidemic kept Africa at the bottom of the table.

Safest today are men in Iceland and women from Cyprus.

(LB/BMcC)