Why is Scotland the sick man of Europe?

After considering this statistic for a moment, Ms McCreath, a committee member at the local housing office, said: "The rents are quite high. A lot of people who live in the houses are on benefits but then they are stuck in a no win, no win situation, because if they come off benefits and get a job that pays the minimum wage they are going to struggle to pay the rent. They kind of get stuck in a rut.

"That could be giving them depression. They cannot come off benefits because they could not afford to pay the rent, so do they stay on benefits and do nothing to stimulate them?

"It is like hospital syndrome. You're stuck in looking at the same four walls every day. It is quite disheartening."

This glimpse of life in one of Glasgow's most deprived communities is just one of many thrown up by an unprecedented survey of the residents.

Last summer more than 6000 people in 14 different parts of Glasgow were interviewed for the major study called GoWell, which is being undertaken by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health.

The researchers will return again, eventually tracking the lives of participants over 10 years to gauge how changes to those communities - such as new housing, more facilities and fresh job opportunities - affect the way people feel and the health they enjoy.

Their first findings, which are released today, show the starting point, before the regeneration begins.

Those involved hope not only to show improvement in people's health and outlook as the investment takes place, but to feed their discoveries into the process and help Glasgow eradicate the appalling inequalities that have weighed on the wider country for so long.

THE ENVIRONMENT Areas which are due for a major overhaul, including the high-rise flats of Red Road and Sighthill, are covered by GoWell. Despite this, most people interviewed considered their home to be "fine as it is".

Professor Ade Kearns, expert in urban studies at Glasgow University and a key member of the GoWell team, said that he would be demanding improvements if it was his home.

"I do think there does need to be a raising of expectations," he explained.

A closer look at the findings points to a deeper-seated malaise. "We find a minority of people, two in five, say their neighbourhood makes them feel they are doing well in life," said Professor Kearns. "I think that is something regeneration would hope to improve."

In fact, very few people thought their community had got better in the last two years with 14% saying it had deteriorated.

Nor did residents feel able to make a difference to their immediate environment - no more than a third, in fact, said they could influence local decision-making.

Glasgow City Council leader Steven Purcell said that work had begun to address this. "We want to see a devolution of decision-making and influence to our 20 planning partnerships and in turn we want those partnerships engaging with the local communities in a way that reaches more people and suits their lifestyle," he said.

ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR Teenagers loitering was a concern for 60% of those surveyed, while half said that gang activity and vandalism and graffiti were a problem and 40% identified drunken, rowdy behaviour as an issue.

These findings paint a bleaker portrait of life in Scotland's deprived communities than earlier research. Such antisocial behaviour was raised as a problem by a third of people from poorer communities who took part in the Scottish Household Survey.

The Centre for Population Health noted that while residents gave high ratings to some local services, such as rubbish collection and transport, youth and leisure services received the worst score.

Professor Kearns said: "It is about people having things to do and places to go. Some of our study areas do not really have a lot of amenities."

sense of community People in the GoWell areas do have a sense of belonging to their community, according to the researchers, but the picture varies with each ethnic group.

While 27% of white Scots reported no sense of belonging, the proportion rose to 40% among black, minority and ethnic residents. This was the same level of disconnection found among asylum seekers.

The respondents from black, minority and ethnic backgrounds were also more likely to feel unsafe.

Dr Carol Tannahill, director of the Centre for Population Health, described these as "incredibly important findings".

She said: "We need to provide services that reflect these differences."

SMOKING The GoWell survey was carried out just months after the launch of Scotland's smoking ban.

A major drive encouraging people to give up was in place at that time. The drive involved everything from hard-hitting TV commercials to community quit clinics.

However, the researchers found little evidence that people in deprived communities were kicking the habit.

Just one in 10 of those interviewed had any plans to try stopping in the next six months and four out of 10 said that they had no intention of ever giving up.

Dr Tannahill said: "I think the smoking ban has been a jolly important measure but it was never going to be the single hit answer to Scotland's love affair with tobacco.

"It still needs to be seen as part of a wider strategy to help people to quit and to stop people from starting smoking and it will be really unfortunate if it was seen as being the one thing that was going to make all the difference."

Maureen Moore, chief executive of ASH Scotland, added: "These figures underline the need for increased resources to tackle the problem of smoking in deprived areas."

health People living in Glasgow's poorest communities die young, not just compared with the rest of Scotland but compared with the whole of the rest of western Europe.

Yet asked about their health, the GoWell participants tended to be upbeat. Only 20% described their health as poor.

Professor Kearns said: "I think one in five saying their health isn't good is low.

"The issue it raises for us is whether people have an unrealistic positive view of their health. When we examine, as we hope to do, health records for people, will it match their self-assessment?"

The proportion of people who reported long-term illnesses was also small, at 16%, considering that national statistics show that some 40% of men and 42% of women have an ongoing condition.

Dr Roddy Shaw, GP in Scotstoun - one of the study areas - said that although people were carrying a great risk of disease they did not necessarily feel ill.

"If you take ischemic heart disease as an example, the process begins many years before the symptoms start," he said. "The narrowing of the artery process with cholesterol and so on begins many years before you actually hit a problem. From that perspective it is silent."