Public Health: How are current patterns of ill health monitored? How have current patterns in the UK changed and how has the government influenced them?

by kinggoonian (student)

Ian Lowenhoff Unit 12

Patterns of Ill Health

How patterns of ill health are monitored (P3)

In the UK patterns of ill health are identified and monitored through the use of statistics which may be viewed on the National Statistics website. Responsible for producing statistics to be put together by our UK National Statistics organisation to illustrate patterns of ill health in the UK are government statistical departments. Government statistical departments that are major contributors to identifying and monitoring patterns of ill health in the UK include: the Department of Health, the Health and Safety Executive and the NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care.

Statistics are collected from records such as birth certificates, the death register and records of hospital admissions. These records may then be further analysed as they will contain much more specific information such as the weight of the baby that was born or the reason that an individual was admitted to hospital. Records such as hospital admissions and arrests have been made a legal requirement by our government so that statistics will always be available. Statistics are also collected from surveys such as the national census survey which is conducted every 10 years in the UK by the government. The national census survey has been taken since 1801 and counts everyone in the UK and their households. It provides a detailed picture of the UK and allows us to compare geographical areas. Although statistics do provide a clear picture, they are not totally accurate for what they represent because there will always be a clinical iceberg. The term clinical iceberg is used to describe how there will always be information on illness that is not reported so statistics can only give us an idea of what ill health in England is really like.

Patterns of ill health are also identified using reports such as the black report conducted in 1980 which found that there were gross inequalities in health at the time, by illustrating that the death rate of men in the lowest social class was twice as high as the death rate of men in the highest social class and the gap of inequality between them was increasing not decreasing as was expected.

Current patterns of ill health in England (P3)

There is currently a vast amount of various patterns of ill health in the UK today. I am going to describe three patterns that relate to ill health comparing them with each other and looking at how they vary in different geographical places in England: Chopwell and Sunbury. The patterns that I have chosen to look at are listed below. In order to describe what these current patterns are and how they have changed over time I have used the neighbourhood statistics website (the link of which is shown in the bibliography).

Cancer: the amount of people who have cancer in England is monitored by reviewing the recorded admissions to hospitals where cancer was the reason for the admission. It is important to note that the statistics of these records only date back to 2008 so do not represent the cancer admissions of today but do give us a good idea of what they are like. It is also important to note that this statistic includes diagnosis admissions so a lot of the people admitted may not have had cancer after all but even so we still are able to get an idea of the numbers of people with cancer when we compare different areas. As is the case with every statistic of ill health cancer admission rates vary from place to place; the average amount of admissions to hospital in 2008 due to cancer in England was 1,326,050. Looking at the table below we can see that the amount of people admitted to hospital in England due to cancer has risen steadily over the past couple of years.

To show how rates of admissions vary for cancer around the country I will now compare cancer admission rates in Spelthorne to cancer admission rates in Chopwell.

Cancer admission rates for Spelthorne were last recorded in 2008 as being 2,290 which is up from the earliest time of recording (2003) when the admission rate for cancer in Spelthorne was 2,177. However in the year of 2005 this rate dropped to 1,937 which shows that the admission rate for cancer to hospitals in Spelthorne is not significantly changing and is staying around the 2,000 mark.

In Chopwell the admission rate for cancer in 2008 was 5,248 and from looking at the statistics from previous years also dating back to 2003 you can see that this rate has had no significant change and has stayed at around 5,000 admissions each year.

Comparing the data we can see that admission rates for cancer are much higher in Chopwell than in Spelthorne with Spelthorne admission rates for cancer averaging at about 2,000 a year and Chopwell admission rates for cancer averaging at about 5,000 a year.

Life expectancy at birth for males: by life expectancy at birth, we mean how long we expect an average individual to live after they have been born. Please note that the current statistics available are from 2009 and not the current date (2011). In 2009 the average life expectancy of a male born in England is 78.3. This life expectancy age is not the same for everywhere in England some places are better and some places are worse due to various factors affecting the quality of life in those areas. Fortunately no places life expectancy is decreasing though and as a whole England’s life expectancy age has been rising for years as we can see from these statistics shown in the table below. Based on these past statistics we can also predict that life expectancy will probably increase next year and for many more years to come in the future.

I mentioned in the previous paragraph that in some areas life expectancy in males is better than the average in England whilst in other places life expectancy in males is worse. Now I am going to prove that point by showing some statistics from my chosen geographical areas.

The current life expectancy age for males born in Spelthorne today is almost two years higher than the average age in England at 79.9. Like the average life expectancy for males as a whole in England, this statistic has been increasing for years and this can be illustrated by looking at the life expectancy for males in Spelthorne in January 2000 to December 2002 which was 76 – almost a 4 year difference.

The current life expectancy age for males born in Chopwell is almost two years lower than the average in England at 76.4. Although this statistic is lower than the average in England, it has been steadily increasing from 74 and has risen by about 2½ years in 9 years time.

Comparing Chopwell and Spelthorne we can see that life expectancy is much lower in Chopwell than in Spelthorne and has been for years. Later I will explain why these patterns are how they are and why they may change.

Road traffic collisions which lead to death or serious injury: by road traffic collisions we mean when a vehicle collides/crashes with another object (usually another vehicle). The latest statistics available for road traffic collisions date back to 2003. In England in 2003 there were 14,631 serious injuries or deaths caused by road traffic collisions. Looking at the statistics in 1999 we can see that the rate of people being seriously injured or killed has been steadily decreasing.

In 2003 the number of people killed or seriously injured as a result of a car collision in Spelthorne was 16. This statistic is more than half the number of people killed or seriously injured in 1999 which was 37. Like with the number of people killed or seriously injured in the whole of England, the number of people killed or seriously injured in Spelthorne has been steadily decreasing since 1999 but randomly shot up again to 39 in 2002.

In 2003 the number of people killed or seriously injured as a result of a car collision ...

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In 2003 the number of people killed or seriously injured as a result of a car collision in Chopwell was 34. This number is 19 people lower than the number of people killed or seriously injured in 1999 (53) so is a decrease. Unlike the number of people killed or seriously injured in Spelthorne as a result of road traffic collisions between 1999 and 2003, the number has been steadily declining and has not increased again along the way.

Comparing Chopwell and Spelthorne we can see that Chopwell has a slightly higher rate of deaths and serious injuries caused by road traffic collisions. We can also see that the average rate of deaths and serious injuries has been steadily decreasing over the years. As the statistics were taken last in 2003 we can only predict how the rates will change in the future. Based on the statistics from the past I think deaths and serious injuries caused by road traffic collisions will continue to decrease.

Factors that affect current patterns of ill health (P4) (M2)

I am now going to explain how the following factors affect current patterns of ill health in the UK. In order to explain the factors effectively I have chosen to present them using a table. All the factors in the table affect current patterns and trends of ill health as a whole because they have a significant impact on many individual’s health.

How these factors will influence current and future patterns of health in the UK (M2) (D1)

I am now going to discuss the factors likely to influence a current and future pattern of health that I described earlier. To make it easier and clearer for the reader to understand my report on how factors such as diet will affect current patterns of health such as life expectancy, I will present my information in a table. I will then evaluate the influences that the factors have had on the patterns and I will also evaluate the influence that government initiatives have had on current patterns of health.

Life Expectancy at Birth for Males

The influence that government has had on current patterns of health and illness in the UK (D1)

Over the last 50 years in the UK our governments (England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland governments) have done a great deal to improve the health of the general population in the UK. They have mainly achieved this by making our general population more aware of what dangers there are to our health and what we can do to improve our health so we as the population may make better informed decisions when it comes to things like diet, driving, exercising, smoking and education.

The biggest influence that our governments have had on our population in general and on patterns of health in the last 50 years has been increasing the awareness of the negative effects of smoking. The ill effects of smoking were first discovered in 1961 and from then our governments worked to prevent people from continuing to smoke in order to prevent people from dying. It was in 1971 that the first government initiative was unleashed which led to smoking companies agreeing to display compulsory anti-smoking adverts on their cigarettes such as “smoking kills”. This initiative significantly raised awareness about the negative effects of smoking in the UK and more and more people have been quitting smoking ever since and this is proved by this graph from Cancer Research UK.

I was surprised to learn that smoking adverts were banned not long ago in 2002 by another government initiative, “The Tobacco Advertising and Smoking Bill 2001”. Cancer rates have not decreased but this is not because government initiatives have not had any affect but more likely because our population is always increasing. The graph that shows how much smoking has dropped since 1948 is proof enough that government initiatives have had a very good influence on patterns of health and ill health in the UK.

More recently the governments for the UK have been campaigning to make driving safer in the UK. Drinking and driving significantly increases the risk of someone having a road accident and the government has released health campaigns to tackle drink drivers over the last few years so that the rates of road traffic collisions in the UK may be lowered down or even prevented completely. Not only has our governments been raising awareness about the ill effects of drinking and driving but they have also been toughening up on offenders so that people are even more deterred from driving whilst under the influence of alcohol. The current maximum penalty for being caught drinking and driving is a £5,000 fine, a ban on your driving license and 6 months imprisonment. If you cause a road collision whilst under the influence and cause a fatality you could go to prison for a maximum of 14 years. Aside to initiatives to prevent drinking alcohol whilst driving there has also been other government initiatives to stop people using their mobile phones whilst driving, to wear their seatbelt whilst driving and to prevent road rage by raising awareness. The graph below is evidence of how government initiatives have raised the standards of driving in the UK as a result of government initiatives and because of these raised standards lives have been saved.

The above bar graph illustrates how the number of deaths and serious injuries as a result of car collisions has decreased from 1999-2003.Source:

In the 21st century obesity in the UK was emerging as a major concern since smoking had been greatly addressed. In order to tackle obesity the prime minister at the time (Tony Blair) released a new piece of legislation called, “Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier”. The legislation aimed to motivate people, improve emotional well being and make healthy choices easier for people to make in the UK. By making a healthier nation the government hoped to prevent people from becoming obese and developing other health issues as a result including type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. It is too early to see if this legislation and government initiative had any real positive effect on the patterns and trends of health in the UK. We do however know that the legislation sparked other health campaigns from government organizations such as the NHS. The NHS very recently started a campaign to motivate people to do exercise. The campaign is called, “couch to 5k” and aims to motivate people to be able to run 5k within 2 months. The campaign is also supported and actively promoted by many running organizations such as Park Run.

A future health campaign targeting prevention of accidents especially in the workplace is due to be released this year by the government organisation: The Health and Safety Executive. The campaign is being released to tackle accidents which are currently a top cause of ill health and even death in the UK. The campaign had previously featured on television and radio in the UK and is called ‘The Shattered Lives’. The campaign aims to raise awareness so people may take precautions and actions to prevent accidents from happening such as slips, trips and falls.

Some people believe that our government regulate our health too much and that they are a ‘nanny state’ - meaning they are always telling us what to do and do not let us make our own decisions. Personally I disagree with this statement because I believe our government is a ‘welfare state’ not a ‘nanny state’. If you compare the UK to a country like the USA where the drinking age is 21 in most states then we are not a ‘nanny state’. Our government still lets us make our own decisions about whether we smoke but they make it harder to do so which is a good thing because smoking is evidently bad for your health.

In conclusion I believe the government has had a very good influence on the population’s health in the UK thanks to initiatives such as new legislation and new health campaigns. The government’s most positive influences on patterns of health in the UK over the past 50 years have been on smoking, driving and obesity. We have also learned that the government is also planning to release future health campaigns to tackle accidents. However I think the government needs to address the current alcohol epidemic that is spreading across the UK and this is a negative point about what the government has not done enough about. Admissions to hospital because of alcohol have been costing our NHS billions and according to the BBC if something does not change soon then these admissions could be costing us £3.7billion by 2015. Besides hospital admission rates rising, deaths because of alcohol related liver disease has also been on the up and this is why I think the government needs to focus more on alcohol campaigns and possibly even legislation before alcohol becomes a major problem.

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