Unskilled male workers are more than twice as likely to die prematurely and eight times as likely to die from preventable accidents, according to research published today. "Inequalities in Health in Ireland - The Hard Facts" is the product of research by the Department of Community Health and General Practice at Trinity College Dublin.
It compared health outcomes between people in different socio-economic groups as well as those living in different geographic area of the State.
One of the authors, Prof Tom O'Dowd, told The Irish Times he was concerned at the high number of people with poor health and "unknown' socio-economic grouping, who appeared to represent an under class in Irish society.
The authors say inequalities "are directly related to increased ill-health and early death among significant numbers of our citizens" and that "unless medical care is targeted appropriately, it may contribute to a widening of differences between socio-economic groups".
A comparison of death rates with occupational groups and geographic location suggests an urban-rural divide in health status. People living in medium-sized towns have the highest levels of heart disease and cancer, says the report.
Using highly specific small area health research methods, the authors identified a strong correlation between living in an area of high deprivation and the likelihood of a person seeking treatment for heroin addiction in the greater Dublin area.
Researchers also found that women who were unemployed were twice as likely to have low birth-weight babies. An analysis of psychiatric illness found that unskilled manual workers were almost four times as likely to be admitted to hospital for the first time with schizophrenia than higher professional workers.
The report criticises the quality of health data collection in the Republic and calls for improvements in the way data on social class of females is collected so that it can be analysed in a meaningful way.
The research, which as funded by the Health Research Board, was carried out by Dr Joe Barry, Dr Hamish Sinclair, Dr Alan Kelly, Dr Ros O'Loughlin, Dr Deirdre Handy and Dr Tom O'Dowd.