Agenda item

Kirsty Hill presented the Public Health England 2016 Exeter District Health Profile which gave an overview of the health and wellbeing of the Exeter district population via 31 different indicators, giving a comparison to England via a RAG (Red, Amber, Green) rating. A discussion around the indicators that linked to the Exeter Health and Wellbeing Board priority areas took place including increasing levels of physical activity, reducing harm from alcohol, reducing falls and cold homes and improving the health of the most disadvantaged.

Some indicators were significantly better than the England average (with a green circle) although it was noted that, in some cases, the England average was not a good aspiration as it was also high. Indicators for both physical activity and food and diet were amber. Excess winter deaths, which could be used as a proxy indicator to support the cold homes priority, were above the national average and it was noted that sadly the UK was worse than some colder European countries, including Scandinavia. Additional publicity around risks of cold homes and the opportunities for financial assistance through Cosy Devon via publications like the City Council’s Citizen could only help take-up of house insulation and better heating systems. The life expectancy gap between the most and least deprived was greater for men than women and was showing an increasing trend in men, but a decreasing trend in females.

Alcohol specific hospital stays in under 18’s and hospital stays for alcohol harm in all ages were both significantly above the national average and understandably were both areas of concern. It was noted that the City also showed high rates of hospital stays for self-harm. It was suggested that there was a potential linkage across issues of mental health, alcohol, self-harm and suicide that warranted further analysis. There were likely to be other potential contributory underlying influences and comparisons between Exeter and the comparator cities (Norwich, etc.) may yield more valuable information to identify and explain potential trends; in turn this would aid identification of potential interventions. The correlation between ARID data and existing public health data, was also worth pursuing – e.g. to establish whether under-age alcohol admissions were linked to off-licence or on-licence sales of alcohol The discussion included the role that social media played in influencing behaviour in young adults

Simon Bowkett referred to a South West Science Network bid to the Lottery for funding for research into young peoples’ use of drugs and alcohol which could potentially reveal useful insights. Dawn Rivers reported that, following cut backs to the youth service, a working group of Exeter Board was developing a Youth Strategy for the City in terms of their needs - again, the feedback of information from this consultation could be rich.

Recent media coverage of alcohol related hospital admissions had occurred that morning on BBC Spotlight and Radio Devon had made enquiries on the indicators in this profile from their preview of the agenda of this meeting.

RESOLVED that:-

(1)        Tim Todd of Young Devon and the Police representative on the Board be invited to the next meeting of the Exeter Health and Wellbeing Board for further consideration of the alcohol figures, together with input of the Youth Strategy findings where related to young people’s health and wellbeing;

(2)        further comparisons of data be made in respect of:-

(a)        the potential close correlations of the alcohol, mental health, self harm and suicide cluster;

(b)        the comparison of Exeter’s profile with comparator cities; and

            (c)        the correlation and use of ARID data;

            Kirsty Hill and Robert Norley to pursue and bring back preliminary findings to the next Board meeting