Improving male life expectancy in Birmingham.

On average, a man in Birmingham can expect to live 2 years less than men in the rest of England. Taken together, diseases of the circulatory system are responsible for the majority of deaths. This paper lays out the challenge faced and the interventions used to close that gap, with a particular focus on a large-scale cardiovascular disease screening programme. Data from general practitioners' registers were used to target men over 40 years of age to be invited to special screening clinics to assess cardiovascular risk. The results obtained from almost 10,000 men are now being used to improve disease registers and to provide preventative treatments.