First-admission rates are strongly associated with measures of social fragmentation, independent of material deprivation and urban/rural category.

Background: Male suicide rates continued to increase in Scotland when rates in England and Wales declined. Female rates decreased, but at a slower rate than in England and Wales. Previous work has suggested higher than average rates in some rural areas of Scotland. This paper describes trends in suicide and undetermined death in Scotland by age, gender, geographical area and method for 1981 -1999.

This population-based study of oesophageal and gastric cancer suggests that the link between hospital volume and long-term survival for patients undergoing surgery requires re-evaluation.

These data define the reality of endoscopic palliative therapy for patients with advanced esophageal or gastric cancer and provide a baseline against which future improvements in care can be measured.

No abstract