Resources and key references
Presentations on recent trends in life expectancy
Film of a brief (10 minute) presentation by Dr David Walsh (Public Health Programme Manager at The Glasgow Centre for Population Health) on changes in mortality rates across UK countries and cities is available.
A presentation by Dr Gerry McCartney (Consultant in Public Health and Professor of Wellbeing Economy at the University of Glasgow) at the Scottish Faculty of Public Health conference in November 2019, summarising the stalled life expectancy trends and its causes is available.
Below are links to download three presentations given by Dr Gerry McCartney which summarise the causes of the recent life expectancy trends. These are provided here for people to use and adapt as appropriate in their own work.
- Life expectancy presentation 4th November 2019 (4.6Mb).
- Life expectancy presentation 29th November 2019 (DARE lecture, Faculty of Public Health Annual Scottish Conference 2019) (7.2Mb).
- Life expectancy presentation 17th January 2020 (5.1Mb).
Mortality trends UK-wide workshops
Background
A number of agencies and organisations within Scotland and across the UK have carried out work to improve our understanding of the stalling in gains in life expectancy in the UK. Several workshops took place to take stock of this understanding to date, and to identify next steps, including how agencies can work together to pursue these.
Workshop details
The table below provides details of workshops that have been held to date. Use the links to download a report of each workshop and also the slides from any presentations.
| Date | Download / link to documents |
|---|---|
|
25th November 2019 |
Belfast workshop - notes not currently available |
|
20th June 2019 |
London workshop:
|
|
21st March 2019 |
Cardiff workshop: |
|
13th November 2018 |
Edinburgh workshop:
|
Contact details
Further involvement and collaboration in this work is welcomed. Contact: phs.scotpho@phs.scot.
Key references
Alexiou A., Fahy K., Mason K. et al. Local government funding and life expectancy in England: a longitudinal ecological study. Lancet Public Health 2021; 6(9):e641-e647.
Fenton L., Minton J., Ramsay J. et al. Recent adverse mortality trends in Scotland: comparison with other high-income countries. BMJ Open 2019; 9: e029936
Fenton L., Wyper G.M., McCartney G., Minton, J. Socioeconomic inequality in recent adverse all-cause mortality trends in Scotland Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2019; 73: 971-974
Green M., Dorling D., Minton J. The Geography of a rapid rise in elderly mortality in England and Wales, 2014-15. Health & Place 2017; 44: 77-85
Hiam L., Harrison D., McKee M., Dorling D. Why is life expectancy in England and Wales ‘stalling’? Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2018; 72: 404-408
Ho JY, Hendi AS. Recent trends in life expectancy across high income countries: retrospective observational study. BMJ 2018; 362: k2562
Katikireddi S.V., Molaodi O.R., Gibson M., Dundas R., Craig P. Effects of restrictions to Income Support on health of lone mothers in the UK: a natural experiment study. Lancet Public Health 2018; 3: e333–40
Koltai J., McKee M., Stuckler D. Association between disability-related budget reductions and increasing drug-related mortality across local authorities in Great Britain. Social Science & Medicine 2021; 284: 114225
Loopstra R., McKee M., Katikireddi S.V., Taylor-Robinson D., Barr B., Stuckler D. Austerity and old-age mortality in England: a longitudinal cross-local area analysis, 2007-2013. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 2016; 109(3): 109-16
Martin S., Longo F., Lomas J., Claxton K. Causal impact of social care, public health and healthcare expenditure on mortality in England: cross-sectional evidence for 2013/2014. BMJ Open 2021; 11(10): e046417.
Mason KE, Alexiou A, Bennett DL, et al Impact of cuts to local government spending on Sure Start children’s centres on childhood obesity in England: a longitudinal ecological study J Epidemiol Community Health 2021;75:860-866.
McCartney G., Walsh D., Fenton L., Devine R. Resetting the course for population health: evidence and recommendations to address stalled mortality improvements in Scotland and the rest of the UK. Glasgow: University of Glasgow/Glasgow Centre for Population Health; 2022
Rashid T., Bennett J.E., Paciorek C.J. et al. Life expectancy and risk of death in 6791 communities in England from 2002 to 2019: high-resolution spatiotemporal analysis of civil registration data. Lancet Public Health 2021:S2468-2667(21) 00205-X. doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00205-X. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34653419.
Rajmil L., Fernández de Sanmamed M-J. Austerity Policies and Mortality Rates in European Countries, 2011–2015. American Journal of Public Health 2019; 109: 768-770
Ramsay J., Minton J., Fischbacher C. et al. How have changes in death by cause and age group contributed to the recent stalling of life expectancy gains in Scotland? Comparative decomposition analysis of mortality data, 2000-2002 to 2015-2017. BMJ Open 2020.10 (10): e036529.
Richardson E., Taulbut M., Robinson M., Pulford A., McCartney G. The contribution of changes to tax and social security to stalled life expectancy trends in Scotland: a modelling study. J Epidemiol Community Health 2020.
Stuckler D., Reeves A., Loopstra R., Karanikolos M., McKee M. Austerity and health: the impact in the UK and Europe. Eur J Public Health. 2017; 27(suppl_4):18–21.
Taylor-Robinson D., Lai E.T.C., Wickham S., et al. Assessing the impact of rising child poverty on the unprecedented rise in infant mortality in England, 2000–2017: time trend analysis. BMJ Open 2019; 9: e029424
Toffolutti V., Suhrcke M. Does austerity really kill? Economics & Human Biology 2019; 33: 211-22
van der Wel KA, Saltkjel T, Chen WH, Dahl E, Halvorsen K. European health inequality through the 'Great Recession': social policy matters. Sociology of Health and Illness 2018. 40(4): 750-768
Walsh D., Dundas R., McCartney G., Gibson M., Seaman R. Bearing the burden of austerity: how do changing mortality rates in the UK compare between men and women? Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2022; 76: 1027-1033.
Walsh D., Wyper G., McCartney G. Trends in healthy life expectancy in the age of austerity. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2022; 76: 743-745.
Watkins J, Wulaningsih W, Da Zhou C, et al. Effects of health and social care spending constraints on mortality in England: a time trend analysis. BMJ Open 2017. 7(11): e017722.
Wickham S, Bentley L, Rose T, Whitehead M, Taylor-Robinson D, Barr B. Effects on mental health of a UK welfare reform, Universal Credit: a longitudinal controlled study. Lancet Public Health 2020; 5(3):e157-e164.
