Scotland has a persistently high mortality rate that is not solely due to the effects of socio-economic deprivation. This “excess” mortality is observed across the entire country, but is greatest in and around the post-industrial conurbation of West Central Scotland. Despite systematic investigation, the causes of the excess mortality remain the subject of ongoing debate.

This paper suggests that the role of childhood adversity and attachment experience merits further investigation as a plausible mechanism influencing health in Scotland. The authors propose a model which sets out some of the interactions between the factors of interest and paramaters for the types of study which would be required to evaluate the validity of the model.

You can read the full paper by clicking on the link below.

Resources

M. Smith, A.E. Willimamson, D. Walsh and G. McCartney: Is there a link between childhood adversity, attachment style and Scotland's excess mortality? Evidence, challenges and potential research (external website)