International mortality comparisons
Background
In February 2003 Professor David Leon and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine produced a detailed report focused on Understanding Scotland's health in an international context
. This report reviewed health outcomes and health determinants and described Scotland's health position internationally, particularly relative to other parts of Europe.
A major component of this work was a comparative mortality analysis, which used WHO population and mortality data to examine mortality trends from 1950 to 2000 in 20 European countries.
New Report - 'Scottish Mortality in a European Context'
A new report, Scottish Mortality in a European Context 
(234Kb), updates the comparative analysis trends produced by Leon et al (2003), in order to provide a more up-to-date comparison of Scotland's mortality rates relative to other European countries and to describe developing trends.
As with Leon's original work, we have considered mortality in four different age groups (infancy, childhood, working age and the elderly) and then focused on thirteen specific causes of death among working age adults. These are: oesophageal, stomach, colorectal, pancreatic, lung and breast cancer; ischaemic heart disease; cerebrovascular disease; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; chronic liver disease, including cirrhosis; external causes; suicide; and, motor vehicle accidents.
For each age group and cause of death, we have compared Scottish trends with those for a selection of other European countries and against the mean, minimum and maximum Western European rates. In addition, Scotland's mortality ranking within Western Europe is compared over time.
The actual mortality trend data are presented as a series of Excel graphs, which can be accessed below.
Please note that, while the Excel graphs can be viewed and printed directly from the browser window, we suggest that you download the files before opening (by right clicking with mouse while hovering over the file and selecting 'save target as'). It also worth noting that the ranking values which appear on some of the charts - those comparing Scotland to the Western European mean, minimum and maximum e.g. A1M and A1F in the infant mortality workbook - only align with the correct time period when printed.
Chronic_Obstructive_Pulmonary_Disease_15-74
Chronic_Liver_Disease,_incl_Cirrhosis_15-74
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