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Atlas of death paints grim picture
SHEFFIELD University experts have helped create an 'atlas of death' – packed with maps of mortality covering the whole of the UK.
Full colour pages reveal the most likely place to die from heart attacks and cancer, commit suicide or even be murdered.
The atlas covering 1,000 neighbourhoods is the first of its kind for over 20 years, and is titled The Grim Reaper's Road Map.
It analyses almost 15 million death records for the period 1981 to 2004 and looks at deaths by cause, gender and geographical area, displayed in a series of area maps with accompanying commentary.
The atlas examines 99 different types of death, such as traffic accidents, drug overdoses and Aids.
In many of the maps there is a stark divide in mortality between north and south, rich and poor, men and women.
For example lung cancer has a distinct north/south divide, with death rates ranging from below half the national average in the south west of England to over twice the average in Scotland. But skin cancer has an opposite pattern with rates higher in the south than the north.
Despite its reputation as a disease of childhood, the average age of death from leukaemia is 67.2. There is a remarkably even spread across the country with little geographic variation, the atlas finds.
Between the ages of 10 and 24, the main cause of death is transport related, mostly road traffic accidents, but by the early 20s, suicide and deaths due to drugs are the main killers across much of urban Britain.
Co-author Dr Mary Shaw said: "This atlas exposes the patterns of death in modern Britain. It illustrates that many of the causes of death that people worry about and that receive a lot of media attention, Aids and assault by cutting, for example, in fact make a minor contribution to death in this country.
"In contrast, few are aware that people, including babies and children, still die from hunger, thirst, exposure and neglect."
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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