Health Inequalities Annual Report 2019.
The Department of Health today published the Health Inequalities Annual Report 2019. This publication presents a comprehensive analysis of regional health inequality gaps between the most and least deprived areas of NI, and sub-regional gaps within Health & Social Care (HSC) Trust and Local Government District (LGD) areas across a range of health indicators.
This report will be a useful resource for local community groups and charities and also businesses who require a background to information in the health sector in their area.
Key findings: Regional
- Male life expectancy at birth has continued to improve in NI and its most deprived areas. However, no notable change in the least deprived areas has led to a narrowing of the most-least deprived gap from 7.5 years in 2011-13 to 7.1 years in 2015-17. Female life expectancy remained constant in NI and its most and least deprived areas with the gap remaining fairly constant at 4.5 years in 2015-17.
- Generally, Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) and Disability Free Life Expectancy (DFLE) declined in all areas between 2011-13 and 2015-17, although Male Healthy Life Expectancy remained constant in NI overall and improved in the least deprived areas. The inequality gap in each of these indicators has widened with the exception of Female Healthy Life Expectancy where there was no change.
- For indicators of premature mortality, rates generally decreased over the period in NI and both its most and least deprived areas. Inequality gaps narrowed or remained broadly similar with the exception of death rates among under 75’s due to respiratory disease where the gap widened to 264%.
- The rate of hospital admissions due to self-harm for those in the most deprived areas was three and a half times that in the least deprived areas. However the inequality gap has narrowed across the period.
- Alcohol and drug related indicators continue to show some of the largest health inequalities monitored in NI, with drug related and alcohol-specific mortality in the most deprived areas around four and a half times the rates seen in the least deprived.
- In 2017, the proportion of births where the mother reported smoking during pregnancy in the most deprived areas was almost five times the rate in the least deprived.
Key findings: Sub-regional:
- Male life expectancy either increased or remained similar across the period in all Trust and Local Government Districts (LGDs) and their most deprived areas.
- Female life expectancy increased across the Causeway Coast & Glens LGD and the most deprived areas of the Newry, Mourne & Down LGD over the period. It remained constant across all other areas except to for the Fermanagh & Omagh LGD and the most deprived areas in both the South Eastern Trust and Derry & Strabane LGD, where it declined.
- Similar to the regional picture, deprivation related inequality was most prominent in indicators relating to alcohol and drugs, self-harm, smoking during pregnancy and teenage births, which were among the five largest inequality gaps for the majority of Trusts and LGDs.
- Large inequality gaps relating to suicide and lung cancer mortality were also seen in many of the LGD and Trust areas. Suicide was among the five largest inequality gaps for Belfast Trust, and Antrim & Newtownabbey and Causeway Coast & Glens LGDs.
- Deaths due to drug misuse was the largest inequality gap seen in the Northern Trust (129%), South Eastern Trust (142%) and Western Trust (171%). Within the Belfast Trust the largest inequality gap was suicide (122%) whereas the largest inequality gap in the Southern Trust was teenage births (100%).
- Drug related mortality was the largest inequality gap seen in six of the eleven LGDs, with the rate in the most deprived areas of the Lisburn & Castlereagh LGD almost three times the LGD average. In Belfast LGD the largest gap was seen with drug related admissions (97%).
- Smoking during pregnancy showed the largest gap in Ards & North Down LGD (111%); teenage births showed the largest gap in Armagh City, Banbridge & Craigavon (108%); while alcohol related admissions showed the largest gap in Derry & Strabane (141%), Fermanagh & Omagh (86%) and Mid Ulster (77%).
This annual publication is one of a series of reports produced as part of the NI Health & Social Care Inequalities Monitoring System (HSCIMS) and presents a comprehensive analysis of health inequality gaps between the most and least deprived areas of NI, and within Health & Social Care (HSC) Trust and Local Government District (LGD) areas across a range of indicators.
Also, this report is an accompaniment to the 2018 Public Health NI Fact Sheet which was published on 6th December 2018 at: https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/public-health-statistics. While the 2018 Public Health NI Fact Sheet presented the latest statistics at NI, HSC Trust and Local Government District levels for a range of public health outcome statistics, this report provides a more detailed assessment of the associated trends and health inequalities gaps. The report is accompanied by downloadable data tables which contain all figures, including urban and rural breakdowns.
