TY - JOUR T1 - Shrinking areas and mortality: an artefact of deprivation effects? JF - Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO - J Epidemiol Community Health SP - 924 LP - 926 DO - 10.1136/jech.2004.032151 VL - 59 IS - 11 AU - Daniel J Exeter AU - Z Feng AU - Robin Flowerdew AU - Paul J Boyle Y1 - 2005/11/01 UR - http://jech.bmj.com/content/59/11/924.abstract N2 - There is evidence that mortality rates are highest in areas that are experiencing population decline, and researchers have recommended that this should be accounted for in health resource allocation. This research finds a significant negative association between population change and mortality for small areas in Scotland, which remains when low social class is accounted for. However, this relation disappears when the area deprivation is accounted for. It is suggested that it is more important to account for deprivation than population change in health resource allocation. ER -