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Page updated: 22 Jul 2010

Trafford’s health profile revealed

A profile of Trafford published by the Association of Public Health Observatories has revealed that people in the borough are generally similar to or better than the England average when it comes to health.

The profile shows how the borough compares to the rest of the country in areas such as causes of death, disease and poor health, as well as the health and lifestyle of adults.

The report revealed:

  • The estimated numbers of obese adults in Trafford is 20.7%, which has improved on last year’s figure of 21.7% and is significantly better than the national average of 24.2%.
  • Only 19.3% of adults in the borough smoke compared to an England average of 22.2%.  This is an improvement of last year’s Trafford figure of 20.3%.
  • There has also been a decrease of early deaths from smoking, heart disease and stroke, and cancer.*

A couple of indicators were significantly worse than the England average, however. Last year there were 1720 per 100,000 hospital stays for alcohol related harm, compared to an average of 1580 across the rest of the country.  Breastfeeding initiation rates have also decreased since last year.

Abdul Razzaq, NHS Trafford’s director of public health, commented: “We are pleased to see that we are improving in areas such as obesity and smoking.  While it’s disappointing that breastfeeding rates have decreased on last year, we have recently employed an infant feeding coordinator who has developed discussion groups and peer support sessions in order to encourage more new mums and mums-to-be to breastfeed, so we hope that next year’s profile will show an improvement in this area.”

To help further improve the health of Trafford’s population, NHS Trafford is developing plans to create an integrated care system, where teams of GPs, hospital doctors, nurses, other health professionals and social care staff work together to meet a patient’s full range of needs.

This will help to tackle the root causes of poor health and early death by helping people before they become seriously ill.  By taking this approach, it is estimated that over 120 deaths could be prevented each year.

The full health profile report for Trafford can be viewed at: www.healthprofiles.info

*2008/09 figures showed there were 200 early deaths from heart disease and stroke, 273 from cancer, and 361 from smoking.  In 2009/10, these figures dropped to 178, 262 and 337 respectively.