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More than a decade ago, we first posted on public health interventions proposed or implemented by the Scottish Government. A key focus area from those initiatives, alcohol mortality, has recently reported status, and the news does not seem encouraging. Despite the introduction of a minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol in 2018, Scottish alcohol deaths reached a new high in 2024.
'E' is for evidence
Our battle with COVID-19 has raised many questions around the evidence base for proposed public health interventions.
'D' is for deficiency
The United Kingdom has long had persistent regional disparities in mortality, and thus in life expectancy.
Occupational hazard
We previously considered Sir Michael Marmot's landmark Whitehall Studies, which looked at health and mortality outcomes for UK civil servants. Sir Michael continues to research UK mortality, and has recently been drawing attention to the fact that improvements in UK life expectancy appear to be slowing down.
The strange case of Scotland's missing improvements
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to attend a New Scientist: Live presentation given by Sir Harry Burns entitled "Making Scotland Well Again", which was an examination of the links between social conditions and incidence of disease.
A tale of three cities
Given my birthplace, I have a more than casual interest in the causes of excess mortality experienced by Scots beyond that explicable by deprivation alone.
Health experiments
One interesting aspect of Scottish devolution is the different path charted in health policy.
Diet? What diet?
A while back I wrote about the lower life expectancy in Scotland. This has a number of drivers, but poor diet is one of them.
Where there's smoke...
Amongst its other claims to fame, Scotland produced one of the earliest prominent anti-smoking campaigners — our very own King James VI was an early opponent of tobacco consumption and smoking
A Scottish question
The Scots are an innovative bunch, including the inventor of the telephone and the discoverer of penicillin.