The 1999 White Paper "Towards a Healthier Scotland" identified Scotland's priority health areas as cardiovascular disease; cancer, mental health and maternal and child health. Therefore, SHELS 1 and 2 focused on these areas.
SHELS 3 looked at the following:
- respiratory diseases (e.g. asthma)
- gastrointestinal diseases (e.g. appendicitis, alcoholic related diseases)
- a sample of data from General Practices to obtain information about risk factors for heart disease (e.g. smoking)
SHELS 4 is now focussing on:
- all deaths across Scotland (2001 to 2013)
- all hospital admissions (including how long we stay in hospital and information about re-admissions)
- infectious and parasitic diseases (including HIV and hepatitis C and B)
- accidents and poisonings
- uptake of bowel cancer screening