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4. Religion and Health Indicators
Key findings:
- Much of the data on health suggests a close association with the age profile of the faith community.
- However, in terms of reported health, life limiting illness and being 'permanently sick or disabled', there appears to be some evidence of Catholic disadvantage.
4.1 - Religion and General Health
4.1.1 The Census also asks householders to self rate their general health and to indicate
whether or not they have a life-limiting illness or disability. Again to a very large extent these will be mediated by age profiles, and we can expect the 'older' groups (such as Presbyterians or Jewish people) to report poor health quite independently of their religion. Likewise, we would expect younger groups (such as Muslims and the no religion group) to report good health.
4.1.2 In fact, as tables 4.1a and 4.1b illustrate, there are less marked differences in self-reported health than age differences in the religious groups might have suggested. Presbyterians, Catholics and Jewish people are most likely to report that they are not in good health, but there is no particularly clear pattern beyond that. Given their age profile it may be that a Catholic disadvantage, which we did not find in occupational terms, is manifested in health terms:
Table 4.1(a) Religion and General Health
% by column | None | Church of Scotland | Roman Catholic | Other Christian |
|---|
Good Health | 67.4 | 53.9 | 56.8 | 63.5 |
|---|
Fairly Good Health | 21.7 | 27.3 | 24.9 | 23.1 |
|---|
Not Good Health | 10.9 | 18.8 | 18.2 | 13.4 |
|---|
TOTAL | 100 | 100 | 99.9 | 100 |
|---|
Base | 131,189 | 182,172 | 168,733 | 23,488 |
|---|
Notes to table
Percentages need not add up to 100 due to rounding.
Source: Census of Scotland, 2001
Table 4.1(b) Religion and General Health
% by column | Buddhist | Hindu | Jewish | Muslim | Sikh |
|---|
Good Health | 63.8 | 71.5 | 54.9 | 68.5 | 66.4 |
|---|
Fairly Good Health | 26.0 | 20.0 | 25.3 | 21.1 | 21.7 |
|---|
Not Good Health | 10.2 | 8.5 | 19.8 | 10.3 | 11.9 |
|---|
TOTAL | 100 | 100 | 100 | 99.9 | 100 |
|---|
Base | 1,194 | 1,209 | 1,083 | 17,792 | 2,374 |
|---|
Notes to table
Percentages need not add up to 100 due to rounding.
Source: Census of Scotland, 2001
4.2 - Religion and Limiting Illness
4.2.1 In terms of life-limiting illnesses we find high levels amongst Presbyterians (32%) and Jewish-persons (33%), as we might have expected given their 'older' profile, but we also find relatively high rates of limiting illness amongst Catholics (29%) and 'other Christians' (24%). Again this might indicate that there is some health disadvantage amongst Catholics. Amongst all other groups the proportions of people with life-limiting illnesses vary between the relatively low levels found amongst Glasgow's Hindus (14%) and Sikhs (18%):
Table 4.2(a) Religion and General Health
% by column | None | Church of Scotland | Roman Catholic | Other Christian |
|---|
Has limiting long-term illness | 17.3 | 32.4 | 29.3 | 24.1 |
|---|
Has not | 82.7 | 67.6 | 70.7 | 75.9 |
|---|
TOTAL | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
|---|
Base | 131,189 | 182,172 | 168,733 | 23,488 |
|---|
Notes to table
Source: Census of Scotland, 2001
Table 4.2(b) Religion and General Health
% by column | Buddhist | Hindu | Jewish | Muslim | Sikh |
|---|
Has limiting long-term illness | 16.8 | 13.8 | 33.1 | 15.7 | 18.3 |
|---|
Has not | 83.2 | 86.2 | 66.9 | 84.3 | 81.7 |
|---|
TOTAL | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
|---|
Base | 1,194 | 1,209 | 1,083 | 17,792 | 2,374 |
|---|
Notes to table
Percentages need not add up to 100 due to rounding.
Source: Census of Scotland, 2001
4.3 - Religion and Permanent Sickness or Disability
4.3.1 To conclude this section we wish to revisit one of the categories discussed in Section 3.1, namely the proportion of people who are economically inactive due to permanent sickness or disability (henceforth abbreviated as PSD). Tables 4.3a and 4.3b report the proportions in each religious group who fall into this category firstly by the Glasgow City Council area, and then by the ten Parliamentary constituencies. As noted earlier, we have to be cautious with this measure as to some extent the proportions will reflect the differing age profiles of the religious groups.
4.3.2 People from the (relatively youthful) 'no religion' group are relatively unlikely to fall into the PSD category. Across Glasgow City and most of the constituencies the proportions in this group who are PSD fall below 10%, the only exception being Shettleston, which has a particularly high proportion overall of persons who are PSD.
4.3.3 Anther notable feature here is the apparent similarity in the proportion of Catholics and Presbyterians who report being PSD. In only three constituencies (Govan; Kelvin; Rutherglen) do we find a difference of 1% or more between these groups. However, as we have already noted, it might have been expected that the relatively older age profile of the Church of Scotland group would have manifested itself in higher rates of PSD than found amongst Catholics. That it does not again hints that there may well be some health disadvantage borne by Glasgow's Catholics. In some areas relatively high proportions of the 'other Christian' group report being PSD, whilst in others the proportions are relatively low. This largely reflects the heterogeneous nature of this amalgamated group but also hints that some Protestant minorities may carry a health disadvantage:
Table 4.3(a) Religion and Permanent Sickness/Disability by constituency
% Permanently sick or disabled (aged 16-74) | All people | None | Church of Scotland | Roman Catholic | Other Christian |
|---|
Glasgow City | 12.4 | 8.1 | 14.5 | 15.0 | 8.7 |
|---|
Anniesland | 11.5 | 8.3 | 13.2 | 13.5 | 9.1 |
|---|
Baillieston | 14.2 | 11.3 | 15.3 | 15.3 | 13.0 |
|---|
Cathcart | 10.2 | 7.3 | 11.4 | 11.8 | 9.0 |
|---|
Govan | 10.5 | 6.8 | 12.7 | 14.5 | 7.1 |
|---|
Kelvin | 7.8 | 4.3 | 10.7 | 12.3 | 3.7 |
|---|
Maryhill | 13.7 | 8.5 | 17.0 | 17.4 | 7.7 |
|---|
Pollok | 12.4 | 9.5 | 13.9 | 13.3 | 13.6 |
|---|
Rutherglen | 10.8 | 8.3 | 11.1 | 12.5 | 8.6 |
|---|
Shettleston | 17.2 | 12.3 | 19.9 | 20.0 | 14.3 |
|---|
Springburn | 14.6 | 9.9 | 17.0 | 16.2 | 11.5 |
|---|
Notes to table
Source: Census of Scotland, 2001
4.3.4 In terms of the remaining religions we find, as we might have expected from their age profiles, that Buddhists and Muslims are relatively unlikely to report being PSD. That, however, does not hold entirely true for the Sikh population. As some of the religious groups reported in table 4.3b have a relatively small presence in some constituencies (in particular Baillieston), we do not report the proportions who are PSD where the number of persons aged 16-74 in any religious group in a given constituency falls below 50 persons. Such occurrences are marked in the table with the following symbol: "^".
Table 4.3(b) Religion and Permanent Sickness/Disability by constituency
% Permanently sick or disabled (aged 16-74) | All people | Buddhist | Hindu | Jewish | Muslim | Sikh |
|---|
Glasgow City | 8.1 | 5.3 | 3.9 | 9.9 | 6.7 | 7.9 |
|---|
Anniesland | 11.5 | 6.5 | 4.0 | 11.4 | 6.4 | 5.2 |
|---|
Baillieston | 14.2 | ^ | ^ | ^ | 4.2 | 16.7 |
|---|
Cathcart | 10.2 | 7.9 | 5.4 | 10.0 | 5.7 | 10.0 |
|---|
Govan | 10.5 | 6.1 | 6.2 | 12.2 | 7.5 | 8.0 |
|---|
Kelvin | 7.8 | 4.0 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 6.0 | 6.6 |
|---|
Maryhill | 13.7 | 4.5 | 2.5 | ^ | 8.0 | 9.5 |
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Pollok | 12.4 | 3.8 | ^ | 15.9 | 4.9 | 2.4 |
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Rutherglen | 10.8 | ^ | ^ | 13.2 | 2.8 | 12.5 |
|---|
Shettleston | 17.2 | 7.8 | 1.5 | 10.8 | 7.0 | 11.4 |
|---|
Springburn | 14.6 | 3.9 | 9.2 | 5.6 | 4.2 | 3.5 |
|---|
Notes to table
^ denotes constituencies where number of persons aged 16-74 in religious group falls below 50
Source: Census of Scotland, 2001
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