Mortality in men of Irish heritage in West Scotland

Abstract

Britons of Irish parentage have been found to exhibit poorer health and to die at a younger age than the general population. This paper expands the investigation of Irish mortality patterns in Britain, to include men with patrilineal Irish descent from the immigration of the 19th and 20th centuries. Five thousand, seven hundred and sixty-six male employees aged between 35 and 64 y were examined in 27 workplace settings in Glasgow, Grangemouth and Clydebank between 1970 and 1973. Twenty-one years' mortality follow-up was analysed from a survey involving a health questionnaire and medical examination, using name analysis to identify those of patrilineal Irish descent. Fitting Cox's proportional hazards model to date of death, using date of birth and Irish name as covariates, resulted in the patrilineal Irish showing elevated mortality from all causes (relative risk 1.22; 95% CI [1.08, 1.38]) and coronary heart disease (relative risk 1.53; 95% CI [1.27, 1.83]). Mortality risk for men with an Irish surname was also elevated for cerebrovascular disease (relative risk 1.30; 95% CI [0.86, 1.95]), respiratory disease (relative risk 1.17; 95% CI [0.73, 1.86]) and injury or poisoning (relative risk 1.42; 95% CI [0.78, 2.61]), although the low numbers of men dying from these causes, meant that differences did not reach statistical significance at the 5% level. No differences were observed for cancer or other causes. Previous work has shown high mortality for second generation Irish, whereas this study indicates high all-cause mortality and an excess of deaths from coronary heart disease in the much larger group of men with patrilineal Irish descent from the immigration of the 19th and 20th centuries.