There would be 6,000 fewer deaths among people aged under 65 on the island of Ireland every year if social inequalities were eliminated, according to a report published today.
The Irish death rate among poorer people is up to 200 per cent higher for certain diseases when compared to the better off. The poorest in society are twice as likely to die from cancer, for example, while the death rate from heart disease is 120 per cent greater.
"Inequalities in Mortality 19891998 - A Report on All-Ireland Mortality data" will be presented to Ms Bairbre De Brun, Northern Ireland's Minister for Health and the Republic's Minister for Health, Mr Martin.
The report was compiled by the director of the Institute for Public Health, Dr Jane Wilde, and senior researcher Dr Kevin P. Balanda.
Commenting on the findings, Dr Wilde said "there would be nearly 6,000 fewer premature deaths (before 65 years of age) if we simply reduced everyone's death rate to that of the highest occupational class". The 10-year study period found the All-Ireland death rate much higher than the EU average. "There would be 5,400 more people alive if we could reduce our death rates to those of our European neighbours," Dr Balanda said. The All-Ireland cancer mortality rate is especially poor at 177 deaths per 100,000 population.
The study found a 6 per cent higher death rate for people in the Republic compared to the North. It also found differences for several specific causes of death. Deaths from drug dependence [overdoses and the chronic effects of abuse] were 31 per cent higher in the South, while deaths from circulatory diseases - including heart attacks and stroke - were 5 per cent greater.
Homicides and deaths from assault occurred more frequently in Northern Ireland - 12 per cent of all deaths under the heading of injury/poisoning, compared to 2 per cent in the South. The death rate based on road traffic accidents was 193 per cent higher for males living in the Republic.
"So although there may be other factors operating, these results show that in both the North and South it was young men from the lower occupational classes who often died from these very different causes of death," the report notes.
A clear socio-economic link is shown by the findings on chronic lung disease. Some 2,600 people died on average each year from chronic lung disease. However, in both the Republic and the North, the death rate in the lowest socio-economic grouping was more than 340 per cent greater than the rate for those in the higher socio-economic groupings.
This trend is repeated in smoking habits, environmental pollution and other factors which disproportionately affect the disadvantaged.