Health of people in Stratford district is improving - The Stratford Observer

Health of people in Stratford district is improving

Stratford Editorial 5th Jun, 2015 Updated: 28th Oct, 2016   0

THE HEALTH of people living in Stratford district is improving according to a new report by Public Health England.

General health in the area is better than the England average, along with life expectancy and child obesity.

But deprivation in the area is still an issue, with around 1,800 children in families receiving benefits or on a low income.

This figure is a slight improvement on last year’s Health Profile report, when 2,100 children were classed as living in poverty.




And residents are expected to live longer, with the life expectancy for women at 85-years-old and 81-years-old for men, nearly two years more than the England average.

In deprived areas of the district this figure is reduced by nearly seven years for women.


The profile – which is designed to help local government and health services understand their community’s needs – lies out a number of priorities for the area.

They include addressing alcohol misuse – which resulted in more than 749 hospital stays last year – and cutting down on obesity and the number of women who smoke during pregnancy.

Warwickshire County Council health spokesman, Coun Les Caborn said: “Health profiles are an extremely useful way for us to track performance not only against the national picture, but also for different parts of the county.

“Generally Warwickshire performs well, but we are aware of persistent health inequalities as reflected in differences in life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas of the county.”

The profile, which was released earlier this week, contained figures for obesity in the district, which PHE have long considered a local problem.

But the figures show the number of overweight children in Stratford is lower than the national average, with 13 per cent of children in Year 6 classed as obese – a total of 153 children.

In England the average number of obese children is 19 per cent.

And the number of obese adults is also slightly down, with around 21 per cent of the population classed as obese compared to the England average of 23.

Although these statistics are lower than the national averages, obesity in Warwickshire still affects around 65 per cent of adults.

Warwickshire County Council, which is responsible for public health, have implemented a number of schemes to tackle the problem in recent years.

They include whole family weight management programmes, 12-week exercise programmes and The Food For Life Partnership, which aims to ensure healthy food is sourced and cooked in many of the county’s schools.

Visit www.apho.org.uk to read the full report.

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