"Glasgow effect" - prevalence of cigarette smoking impact on poor health..

July 19, 2009 - The ‘Glasgow effect’ - Smoking rates are higher in Glasgow than in the rest of Scotland. Glasgow is known to have a poor health record. Prevalence of cigarette smoking, known to impact on the risk of heart disease, cancer, and stroke, is higher there than for the Rest of Scotland (RoS). However, Glasgow has comparatively high levels of deprivation (a state of extreme poverty), which is associated with unfavourable health-related behaviours. Linsay Gray and Alastair H Leyland assess the existence of a ‘Glasgow effect’ of smoking status by investigating whether differences can be explained by socioeconomic factors. It was concluded that increased smoking levels in Glasgow can be explained by individual and area socioeconomic circumstances.

PAPER: Is the "Glasgow effect" of cigarette smoking explained by socio-economic status?: a multilevel analysis, Linsay Gray and Alastair H Leyland, BMC Public Health 2009, 9:245doi:10.1186/1471-2458-9-245, ABSTRACT...

Glasgow City Council Smoking Statistics...

Another factor: Scotland's unexplained high mortality rate compared with other industrial countries, may be due to a lack of sun. A lack of sunshine in Glasgow and the West of Scotland reflects levels of chronic illness that which cannot be explained by deprivation alone. A lack of sunshine on Orkney and Shetland – only 24 per cent of the maximum number of hours possible – corresponds to the highest prevalence of MS in the world. By contrast, the South Coast of England, where such diseases are much less common, receives 400 more hours of sunshine a year than Scotland. (Scotland’s poor health ‘caused by a lack of sunshine’, TimeOnline.co.uk, 9/15/2008)

Reference: The ‘Glasgow effect’? Smoking and socioeconomic status in Scotland, Linsay Gray, European Journal of Public Health, Vol. 16, 9/1/2006.

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Click on image to enlarge, Coat-of-Arms Glasgow, Scotland..