The“profound” impact of de-industrialisation on health in Lanarkshire will be the subject of a first of its kind university-led study.

Researchers link a rise in the “diseases of despair” – alcohol abuse, drug abuse and suicide – with the hollowing out of communities caused by coal mine and steelwork closures.

Professor Michael Roy, of Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) which is leading the project, says moving people out of Glasgow to housing estates in new towns such as East Kilbride had positive implications for health but the loss of heavy industry led to a worsening picture.

Once the largest hot-strip steel mill in western Europe, the closure of Ravenscraig in Motherwell in 1992 dealt a devastating blow to thousands of skilled workers and their families.

The British Steel Corporation’s decision to close the Motherwell plant – one of its five across the UK – spelled the end of steelmaking in Scotland, following a sharp slump in demand in the 1980s.

On June 24, 1992, 770 workers clocked out for the last time, while another 10,000 job losses were linked to the industry

Prof Roy, of the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health, says understanding the “legacy of the past” is key to tackling health inequalities in Lanarkshire, which has some of the UK’s most deprived communities.

He said: “We know that health is often much poorer in former industrial areas, and this is especially the case in west central Scotland. Lanarkshire was previously very focused on heavy industry, including coal mining, and steelworks.

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“A lot of the issues [with health] come about because of what we call the diseases of despair – alcohol abuse, drug abuse, suicide – and the disruption in societal ties.

“The de-industrialisation and the hollowing out of communities really exacerbated that and what we are seeing is the legacy of that in west central Scotland. Men’s health plummeted.”

He added: “The new towns – Cumbernauld and East Kilbride – actually play a role in the health profiles that we see because of the legacy of the creation of the peripheral housing estates and moving people out to them from the 1960s onwards.

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“Some of the newer research – done by Glasgow Centre for Population Health – actually focuses on the role of the new towns and why things are especially bad in Glasgow.”

He said there was a “class component” to the relocation of communities to the new towns.

“They moved a lot of people out who had a particular role and were skilled workers,” said Prof Roy.

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“So a lot of them moved out based on the male breadwinner’s occupation.

“The people who were left behind... there wasn’t many skilled occupations or the occupations that were left behind were on the brink of being lost.”

In a first of its kind project, the university will work with the NHS, local authorities and the voluntary and community sector, to better understand what socioeconomic factors are influencing health in Lanarkshire today.

A new community health consortium will be launched to give local people a say in how funding is allocated for services in their area.

Prof Roy said: “Ultimately we will be looking to improve public health within some of the most deprived communities in the UK.

“We have a really excellent team of historians who are going to be looking at the legacy of de-industrialisation on contemporary health profiles in Lanarkshire.

“It’s not a traditional research project, there is a research element to it but what we want to do create a space where the public sector can meaningfully engage with the people whose lives are being most affected to work out what the future priorities should be.”

The £200,000 project - Mobilising Community Assets to Tackle Health Disparities- was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.