Glasgow effect

Common card · No. 426267

The Glasgow effect is a socially constructed theory that describes the unexplained lower life expectancy of residents of Glasgow, specifically when compared to other municipalities across the United Kingdom. Although lower income levels are generally associated with poor health and a shorter lifespan, epidemiologists have argued that poverty alone does not appear to account for the disparity found in Glasgow. Equally deprived areas of the UK such as Liverpool and Manchester have higher life expectancies, and the wealthiest ten per cent of the Glasgow population have a lower life expectancy than the same group in other cities. One in four men in Glasgow will die before their sixty-fifth birthday. There have been several hypotheses trying to explain the phenomenon, with no resolute consensus. Some allege that a “social apartheid” in the 60s and 70s is responsible, while others point to factors like vitamin D deficiency, cold winters, higher levels of poverty than the figures suggest, adverse...

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