Life expectancy of different ethnic groups using death records linked to population census data for 4.62 million people in Scotland
Abstract
Background : Few countries record the data needed to estimate life expectancy by ethnic group. Such information is helpful in assessing the extent of health inequality. Method: Life tables were created using 3 years of deaths (May 2001?April 2004) linked to Scottish 2001 Census data for 4.62 million individuals with self-reported ethnicity. We created 8 ethnic groups based on the census definitions, each with at least 5000 individuals and 40 deaths. Life expectancy at birth was calculated using the revised Chiang method. Results: The life expectancy of White Scottish males at birth was 74.7 years (95% CI 74.6 to 74.8), similar to Mixed Background (73.0; 70.2 to 75.8) and White Irish (75.0; 74.0 to 75.9), but shorter than Indian (80.9; 78.4 to 83.4), Pakistani (79.3; 76.9 to 81.6), Chinese (79.0; 76.5 to 81.5), Other White British (78.9; 78.6 to 79.2) and Other White (77.2; 76.4 to 78.1). The life expectancy of White Scottish females was 79.4 years (79.3 to 79.5), similar to mixed background (79.3; 76.6 to 82.0), but shorter than Pakistani (84.6; 82.0 to 87.3), Chinese (83.4; 81.1 to 85.7), Indian (83.3; 80.7 to 85.9), Other White British (82.6; 82.3 to 82.9), other White (82.0; 81.3 to 82.8) and White Irish (81; 80.2 to 81.8). Conclusions: Males and females in most of the larger ethnic minority groups in Scotland have longer life expectancies than the majority White Scottish population.
Citation
Gruer , L , Cézard , G , Clark , E , Douglas , A , Steiner , M , Millard , A , Buchanan , D , Katikireddi , S V , Sheikh , A & Bhopal , R 2016 , ' Life expectancy of different ethnic groups using death records linked to population census data for 4.62 million people in Scotland ' , Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health , vol. 70 , pp. 1251-1254 . https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2016-207426
Publication
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0143-005XType
Journal article
Description
This work was supported by the Scottish Chief Scientist’s Office (grant number CZH/4/878) and Cancer Research UK (grant number C3743/A16594) with supplementary funding from NHS Health Scotland. NHS National Services Scotland and National Records of Scotland made ‘in-house’ contributions to the work. SVK is funded by a NRS Scottish Senior Clinical Fellowship (SCAF/15/02), the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12017/13) and the Chief Scientist’s Office (SPHSU13).Collections
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