New Figures Show Shocking Variations in Death Rates across England

Lisa Franchi June 12, 2013

New data provided by the Public Health England’s Longer Lives website shows that people in the north-west England are the most at risk of dying early. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the figures were ‘shocking’ and that authorities should drive action to improve health. He also hopes that the data could be used to tackle issues on smoking, alcohol consumption, and obesity.

There are around 153,000 cases of premature deaths in England each year, 103, 000 of which are due to preventable diseases such as cancer, heart attack, stroke, lung disease and liver disease. Blackpool, Liverpool, Salford and Manchester have the highest rates of early death. York, on the other hand, is classified as the ‘least deprived’ area but still appears in the bottom list as compared to other ‘least deprived’ areas.

Waltham Forest in London belongs to the top 15 ‘most deprived’ areas, but still ranked 73^rd in 150 councils. Wokingham has the lowest rate of death rates, with 200 in every 100,000 people dying over the age of 75.

Prof John Newton from the Public Health England said the premature mortality growth in UK has improved but the country is still the 7^th in the 17 countries in Europe that have the highest early death rates.

Areas	Premature Death Rate Per 100,000 people
Wokingham	200
Richmond upon Thames	202
Dorset County Council	207
Surrey County Council	209
South Gloucestershire	209
Rutland	209
Harrow	210
Kensington and Chelsea	213
Bromley	214
Hampshire County Council	215
Manchester	455
Blackpool	432
Liverpool	389
Salford	382
City of Kingston upon Hull	375
Middlesbrough	370
Knowsley	360
Blackburn with Darwen	354
Tameside	352
Nottingham	351

Many Factors at Play

According to Prof Newton, there are several factors that affect the increasing rate of premature mortality. "Although our behaviours have an impact, and we all need to take responsibility for our own health, you have to see the social, economic, cultural context and you also have to look at the environment - housing, education, transport - all of those have an effect on our health," he said.

He emphasised the role of many organisations in tackling the issue to see what they can do.

Public Health England argued that the socio-economic background plays a large part in life expectancy. It also gives explanation to the regional divide.

Hunt said that the shocking variation in early deaths means that people’s lives are needlessly cut short and that cannot continue unchecked. The profound differences in similar areas showed that councils could learn from each other, the secretary added. He calls for the data to be used to address public health challenges such as drinking, smoking and obesity and achieve their goal of saving 30,000 lives a year by 2020.

Local Government Association said the data provides ‘useful insights’ but they urged health authorities to take action. “Using it out of context to create any sort of national league table dangerously oversimplifies matters and ignores the very complex socio-economic and cultural factors that affect the premature mortality rate.” said Cllr Zoe Patrick, chairwoman of the organisation’s community wellbeing board. She said the government should take ‘long-term’ commitment to improve public health and provide each council with the right resources.

Meanwhile, Labour called for a "One Nation approach" to end health inequalities. Shadow public health minister Diane Abbott said ‘there can be no more chilling form of inequality than someone’s social status at birth determining the timing of their death’.

Source of this article:

Early deaths: Regional variations ’shocking’ - Hunt