Moving to Scotland may damage your health

July 31, 2012

Free Market Foundation

Asian people who come to live in Scotland adopt the same bad lifestyle habits such as poor diet as Scots, say the authors of a study by Edinburgh University and NHS National Services Scotland.

Consider:

People from India and China typically had a low risk of developing heart disease or stroke, but by adopting a Scottish lifestyle, put themselves at greater risk.

For example, men born in Pakistan but living in Scotland had a 1 per cent higher rate of heart disease deaths than Scottish-born men and 30 per cent higher than men living in England.

Conversely:

English men living in Scotland had a 25 per cent lower death rate than Scottish-born residents.

They also had a 22 per cent lower death rate from heart disease; among women, heart deaths were 20 per cent lower.

The latest research only confirms Scotland’s status as the United Kingdom’s “heart attack hotspot,” say the researchers:

More than 1 in 10 people are estimated to be living with some form of heart or circulation problem in Scotland, with someone falling victim every 15 minutes.

In 2005, there were more than 10,000 deaths from coronary heart disease and almost 6,000 deaths from stroke in Scotland.

Source: Lyndsay Moss, Moving to Scotland ‘may damage your health,’ The Scotsman, December 12, 2007.

For text: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1934792007

For more on Health Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=16

FMF Policy Bulletin/ 18 December 2007