Monday, September 14, 2009

UK life expectancy

Over the weekend I was talking to a Scottish guy and the subject of dietary habits came up (this was right after I bought him his very first Chick-fil-A sandwich). He said that Scots are notorious for their poor diet, which consists -- among other things -- of deep fried pizza, fried Mars bars and copious amounts of alcohol.

Curious, I decided to do some research into life expectancy statistics within the United Kingdom. Turns out that Glasgow has among the lowest life expectancies in the country at a mere 69 years for males and 76 years for females. In comparison, the overall life expectancy for males in the U.K. is 76.5 years for males and 81.6 for females.

Same health care system, different outcomes. Further proof that anyone who seeks to evaluate health care approaches based largely on life expectancy isn't worthy of being taken seriously.

Previous posts on life expectancy here and here.

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