Health: Death rate of young men rises

Men in their late 20s and 30s are failing to share in a general improvement in health and life expectancy, the Government's Chief Medical Officer said yesterday.

Death rates among men aged 25 to 39 are increasing, while those among all other age groups are decreasing, chiefly because of an increase in violence, drinking and suicide, Sir Kenneth Calman said. Deaths related to drug misuse and accidental poisoning have increased almost sixfold among men aged 40-44 since 1986.

Launching his annual report On the State of the Public Health 1996, Sir Kenneth said that although the general health of the population was improving there remained big inequalities between social classes and a continuing excess of deaths in the winter. The report focuses on problems faced by the 7.3 million people with a disability aged over 10 and highlights the increasing attention being paid to domestic violence, which accounts for one in four of all assaults and has serious consequences for children as well as imposing a heavy burden on hospital accident and emergency departments. Sir Kenneth said medical and other staff dealing with women injured in domestic violence often failed to pick up what was going on.