Scottish Public Health Observatory quarterly update
March 2021

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides the Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) quarterly update on a number of topic areas. Of these topics, the COPD, Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, Epilepsy and Asthma pages contain updated data.

Main points

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

• Historically deaths and hospitalisations with a diagnosis of COPD were higher in males compared to females, reflecting previous patterns of smoking. This is no longer the case, as both death and hospital admission rates are now similar in males and females.
• Hospital admissions with a diagnosis of COPD are significantly higher for people living in the most deprived areas of Scotland compared to those in the least deprived areas. For males aged 65-84, the most deprived areas have around 2,400 admissions per 100,000 people compared to 340 per 100,000 people in the least deprived areas. Similarly, for females aged 65-84, the most deprived areas have around 3,000 admissions per 100,000 people compared to 460 per 100,000 people in the least deprived areas.

Diabetes

• In 2019, diabetes was recorded as a factor in close to 6,400 deaths.
• Over the last 10 years both hospital admission and death rates have been increasing. However, in the last 3 years there are signs that both hospital admission and death rates associated with diabetes are levelling off, indicating a trend towards no change.

Multiple sclerosis

• The number of new cases of multiple sclerosis, identified using hospitalisation and death records, has been relatively stable for the last 10 years. In 2019/20, new cases in females were 10.0 per 100,000 people and 4.9 per 100,000 people in males.

Epilepsy

• For the last 10 years there has been a downward trend in new cases of epilepsy, identified using hospitalisation and death records. This has been mainly driven by the decrease of cases among people aged 55 and over. In 2019/20, new cases in males were 32.9 per 100,000 people and 23.0 per 100,000 people in females.

Asthma

• In 2019/20, 89 people per 100,000 were hospitalised for asthma at least once during the year, a figure that has been relatively constant over the last 10 years.
• Males are less likely to be hospitalised for asthma than females. Since 2009/10, rates in males have shown a decline of almost 20%; in females, rates initially fell by around 10% but have subsequently returned to 2009/10 levels.
• In children aged under 10 years, the rate of patient hospitalisations has decreased by around 40% in both males and females since 2009/10. Rates in those aged over 10 years have remained relatively stable, with a slight decrease for males and a slight increase for females over the last 10 years.

Background

The Scottish Public Health Observatory (external website) collaboration is led by PHS and includes the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, National Records of Scotland, the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit and the Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory.

The aim of the collaboration is to make public health information more accessible, to promote the reduction in inequalities and to inform health improvement in Scotland.

Further information

Data from this publication are available from the publication page on the ScotPHO website (external website).

The next release of this publication will be 29 June 2021.