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Health Profile of England 2008

  • Document type:
    Statistics
  • Author:
    Department of Health
  • Published date:
    27 January 2009
  • Publication format:
    A4 electronic only
  • Gateway reference:
    11082
  • Pages:
    91
  • Copyright holder:
    Crown

First published in 2006, the Health Profile of England provides a collation of national and regional data to provide a baseline against which people can compare data from their own Local Health Profile (LHP). The 2008 report updates tables showing regional comparisons and national trends for indicators presented in Local Health Profiles, as well as a wide ranging snapshot of public health and well-being in England and a section on international comparisons.

The Health Profile of England is intended to be of use to public service professionals and officials within the local community - such as local councillors and primary care trust directors of public health - who are in a position to exert influence over the planning, commissioning, procurement and delivery of public health programmes. But the document will also be of interest to a much wider audience - anyone with an interest in the profile of health and health determinants in this country.

The Health Profile of England illustrates progress in respect of a broad range of measures of health determinants and outcomes. It represents a component of the national public health information and intelligence strategy, drawing together a range of evidence to provide a convenient source of public health metrics

What the Health Profile of England 2008 shows

 

A general improvement in health outcome

The report shows recent improvements in a number of critical areas, eg:

  • declining mortality rates in targeted killers (cancers, all circulatory diseases and suicides)
  • increasing life expectancy, now at its highest ever level
  • reducing infant mortality, now at its lowest ever level.

However in some areas particular challenges remain to achieve and sustain progress, eg:

  • rising rates of diabetes
  • rising rates of chlamydia.

Similarly for the determinants of health,

although we are making improvements in some important areas, eg:

  • the number of people who smoke
  • quality of housing stock
  • increases in physical activity levels and fruit and vegetable consumption.                        

 There are areas of concern, eg:

  • increasing levels of obesity in adults and children (and even where we are seeing improvements, health inequalities are often present)
  • the report illustrates various geographical inequalities across the country.

International comparisons give a wider context presenting national progress in comparison to countries of the European Union (EU), or to the 15 countries that were members of the EU prior to 2004 (EU-15), eg:

  • Premature death rates from all circulatory diseases have shown a narrowing of the gap with the EU-15 average over recent decades, but remain higher than the  average for this group.
  • Premature mortality rates from cancer for males have, over the last 30 years, fallen substantially faster than the EU-15 average and are now among the lowest in the EU-15; for females, rates which were once substantially higher than the EU-15 average are now rather closer to the EU-15 average
  • Death rates from motor vehicle traffic accidents in the United Kingdom are among the lowest in the EU
  • The prevalence of obesity in England is the highest in the EU-15 countries, and one of the highest in the wider cohort of OECD countries
  • Death rates for chronic liver disease and cirrhosis have risen markedly, particularly since the mid-1990s, and for females, recent data show that England has risen above the EU-15 average.
  • The percentage of all live births to mothers under age 20 in the United Kingdom is the highest when compared to other EU-15 countries.

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