Life expectancy among poorer Derry men falling

Poorer Derry men can now expect to die nearly six years earlier than their better-off fellow citizens.

The figures are contained in DoH’s newly-published ‘Health Inequalities Annual Report 2022’.

The report also shows how rates of drug and alcohol-related hospitalisation continue to be far higher in poorer districts of the city.

Male life expectancy in Derry and Strabane’s most deprived areas was 72.3 years - 5.7 years less than the district average (78 years).

It has thus fallen from 72.5 years while the district average has risen from 77.8 years - both of which figures are contained in 2021's annual report which was published last spring.

Female life expectancy in Derry and Strabane’s poorest areas on the other hand has risen slightly from 78.5 years to 78.7 years - year-on-year. It is now 2.8 years less than the Local Government District average (81.6 years).

By comparison, according to the World Bank's figures, the average citizen in the Democratic People's Republic of Korean can expect to live to 72.45 years of age. In the Syrian Arab Republic it is 73.65 years of age. And in Libya it is 73.08 years of age. All longer than in the poorest areas of Derry/Strabane.

The report also once again demonstrates how diseases of the poor such as addiction continue to exact a severe toll in Derry where the death and admission rates for drink and drugs are much higher in deprived areas.

In Derry and Strabane's poorest areas the death rate for drugs was 156 per cent the district average, the death rate for alcohol was 132 per cent the district average, the admission rate for alcohol was 131 per cent the district average and the admission rate for drugs was 99 per cent the district average.

A fifth deprivation inequality gap identified in Derry/Strabane was in teenage births - 126 per cent the district average.

These inequalities were found right across the Western Trust.

"Large inequality gaps for alcohol related admissions also exist in the majority of Trusts and LGDs. The rate in their most deprived areas was more than double the Trust/LGD average for both the Western Trust (121%) and Mid & East Antrim LGD (137%)," the report states.

The figure for drug deaths is even starker.

"Deaths due to drug misuse was the largest inequality gap in the Northern (153%) and Western Trusts (197%)," the authors note.

2021 report: Poorer Derry men dying 5 years younger with far higher rates of alcohol admissions and drugs deaths