What pharmacists can do to tackle the major causes of death in Scotland

摘要

CONCERN about Scotland's poor health is a well worn theme. Decades of premature death and low life expectancy, primarily because of heart disease, stroke and cancer, have long caused soul-searching among health professionals, policy makers and media commentators. Since 2006, however, the impact of the "big three" on Scottish mortality appears to have begun to subside, or at least to have peaked. "Scotland's population 2011: the Registrar General's annual review of demographic trends", released at the beginning of August, shows that there were 53,661 deaths registered in Scotland in 2011. This was 306 (0.6 per cent) fewer than in 2010 and was the lowest number of deaths recorded since 1855, when civil registration was introduced. These figures are interesting to any health professional in Scotland and I would recommend reading the report yourself. The causes of deaths attributed to the traditional "big three" were cancer, which caused 15,457 deaths (29 per cent of all deaths), heart disease, which caused 7,636 deaths (14 per cent of all deaths) and stroke, which caused 4,594 deaths (9 per cent of all deaths).