WOMEN in Dumbarton and the Vale have a lower life expectancy than anywhere else in the country, new figures have warned.

The area’s men are also near the bottom of the league table, second only to Glasgow.

Despite marginal improvements in recent years, West Dunbartonshire continues to lag behind others.

Residents are living longer – but not as long as those around other parts of Scotland.

At birth, men in West Dunbartonshire can expect to live, on average, to 74.8 years old, compared to 80.5 in East Dunbartonshire. Glasgow is at 73.4 years – a little over eight years of collecting state pension.

Women have a life expectancy of 78.7 in West Dunbartonshire, the lowest in the country, versus 83.5 in East Dunbartonshire, the highest.

Men have made significant improvements in the past decade, with life chances now four years better, with women improving by a little over a year in that time.

Experts and politicians agreed the causes remain economic ones - with income comes opportunities in life.

David Walsh from the Glasgow Centre for Population Health said 150 years ago, the biggest causes of death 150 years ago were infectious diseases such as TB and others, which most affected were the poorest in society.

One hundred years on, heart disease was one of the biggest killers, again disproportionately affecting the poorest.

Today there is an epidemic with alcohol and once again, it’s the poorest in society who bare the brunt.

And the future obesity crisis will also hit the poorest in society the worst.

“It’s about understanding the underlying causes and not focusing on individual health behaviours,” he said.

“There is a lot of focus on individual health behaviours but we know from public health research across the globe that these individual choices are governed by the conditions people live in and the opportunities they have in life.

“All these areas are characterised by deindustrialisation and social consequences of continuing levels of poverty and deprivation.”

Mr Walsh said government policies reforming welfare were likely to increase levels of vulnerability in the population.

“It’s important to remember health is improving, but in places like West Dunbartonshire and Glasgow, it’s improving slower.

“If a person moves and their health changes, it tends to be around better jobs and better income. It’s not as simple as moving from one area to another.

“These figures are average – below them there’s massive inequality of how people live. There are people dying at ages well below these averages.

“Scotland generally has the worst health inequalities, wider here than anywhere in western Europe.

“Areas with deindustrialisation all do relatively badly. West Dunbartonshire and the broader west-central Scotland is not an exception. These are high-level structural factors.

“Political decisions matter for population health. There is a need for governments, nationally and locally, to create better environments, including economic, to enable better better health, rather than blaming people for poor choices.”

Mr Walsh said he believed the Scottish Government understood it was high-level factors affecting life expectancy.

He added: “It’s about opportunities in life and how that impacts on your physical and mental health. It’s an extraordinarily complex thing.”

Life expectancy at age 65 is better, according to the statistics, with men in the area living an extra 16 years and women living 18.4 years. But both figures are still second worst in Scotland. In East Dunbartonshire, women can expect to live 21.1 years beyond 65.

Opposition councillor Jim Bollan said: “The figure for life expectancy for women in West Dunbartonshire, the worst in the UK, is appalling and is partly due to the lack of resources invested by successive governments in women’s preventative health measures along with the general lack of supportive services for women, in a society still dominated by males. To spend £200 billion on replacing Trident while women’s lives are being cut short is scandalous.

“A redistribution of wealth and power is the only way to ensure we move towards a society based on equality and justice for all our citizens.”

Cllr Patrick McGlinchey, depute leader of West Dunbartonshire Council and spokesman on infrastructure, regeneration and economic development, agreed higher income meant access to better housing, health services – even the ability to take an afternoon off to do nice things.

He said the region-wide City Deal and its various infrastructure projects could make a genuine difference, even if only to give better transport access to jobs not immediately in West Dunbartonshire.

The Clydebank Central councillor said: “We know there’s a strong economic element to this. We have worked really hard over the last five years to buck the trend with employment in West Dunbartonshire.

“Clydebank doesn’t exist in isolation - we need to make sure people have access to jobs on an equal basis to those in suburban areas.”

“We are not an economic powerhouse anymore. Those days are not going to come back. There is no silver bullet. It’s a complex picture.”