2007 Status Report On Health Inequalities, UK
The report is the third and final against the national health inequalities strategy, Tackling Inequalities: A Programme for Action which was published in 2003.
It reports that the gap in infant mortality is narrowing and life expectancy in the most deprived areas has increased by two and a half years for men and one and a half years for women over the last ten years. However, the gap between the life expectancy of women in the most deprived areas is still widening compared to the rest of the country.
The report also states that:
there has been long-term progress in reducing child poverty and narrowing inequalities in housing quality, educational attainment, child road accidents and teenage conceptions; cancer and circulatory heart disease gaps are narrowing; and there has been a general decline in smoking prevalence but no narrowing of the gap.
In addition, almost all of the departmental commitments contained in the Programme for Action have been wholly or substantially delivered. These wider improvements will help contribute to a long-term sustainable reduction in health inequalities.
Public Health Minister, Dawn Primarolo, said:
"This report proves what we already know - health inequalities are difficult to change. We've set ourselves an ambitious target and we're the only country in the world to have a plan to reduce health inequalities. We are determined to make a difference.
"We are specifically targeting 70 local authority areas with the greatest deprivation and we've provided them with Health Trainers to help people improve their health. We are also working hard to tackle obesity and smoking - issues which affect everyone but particularly those in deprived areas.
"We will be publishing a long term strategy to continue to tackle the UK's health inequalities later this year."
Professor Sir Michael Marmot chaired the scientific reference group on health inequalities that oversaw the development of the report. He said:
"While it is too early to see any short term impact on health inequalities, the report shows a very welcome improvement in life expectancy for all social groups, including disadvantaged groups. There are encouraging signs of a reduction in health inequalities in the two big killers of cancer and heart disease. Wider policy too makes a difference to health inequalities with over 600,000 children taken out of poverty over the last 10 years."
Alan Maryon Davies, President of the Faculty of Public Health, welcomed the publication of the report. He said
"It shows that progress has been achieved in some important areas but reducing the gap remains a challenge. Working with other partners, we will continue to work with disadvantaged communities to help them to improve their own health and prospects for life."
Notes
1. Tackling Health Inequalities: A Programme for Action (2003), the cross-government national health inequalities strategy, was a three-year plan that laid the foundations for meeting the 2010 target and the wider challenges set by the underlying causes of health inequalities. It also included details of departmental commitments to support the strategy to the end of 2006. The Programme for Action has continued in play beyond 2006, pending revision. A strategy refresh was announced by Alan Johnson last September.
2. The target is to reduce inequalities in health outcomes by 10 per cent as measured by infant mortality and life expectancy at birth by 2010.
3. The Spearhead Group is the focus for the health inequalities life expectancy target, and the health inequalities elements of the cancer and heart disease targets. It consists of the 70 Local Authority areas (which map to 62 PCTS) in the bottom fifth nationally for three or more of the following five factors:
* Male life expectancy at birth.
* Female life expectancy at birth.
* Cancer mortality rate in under 75s.
* Cardio Vascular Disease mortality rate in under 75s.
* Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004 (Local Authority Summary), average score.
4. The smokefree legislation which introduced a ban on smoking in public places was introduced on 1 July 2007. The 'Getting Off Cigarettes' campaign (launched December 2007) was designed to promote the wide range of support available to those who want to quit. In 2007 the age of sale of tobacco was increased from 16 to 18 years and hard-hitting picture warnings will appear on all tobacco products produced for the UK market from 1 October 2008. Later this year, the Department of Health will consult on the next steps in tobacco control and the further regulation of tobacco products, including around the display of tobacco at the point of sale, access to tobacco from vending machines and packaging.
5. Health Weight, Healthy Lives - the cross Government obesity strategy - was published on 23 January 2008. It can be found here
http://www.dh.gov.uk
2007 Raport privind starea de sãnãtate a inegalitãþilor, Marea Britanie - 2007 Status Report On Health Inequalities, UK - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate