Health worse than national average

The health of people in Rochdale is generally worse than the national average, according to latest indicators, while the rate of claimants of incapacity benefits for mental illness is the eighth worst in England, with nearly 6,700 claimants.

Rochdale performed significantly worse than the national average on a number of health related indicators, shown in the latest Health Profile for the borough for 2009.

Compared with the rest of the country, Rochdale has significantly more women who smoke during pregnancy, more obese children, more children with tooth decay at age five, more adults who smoke, more binge drinking adults, less healthy eating adults and more obese adults.

In terms of disease and poor health, Rochdale has significantly more over 65s 'not in good health', more hospital stays for alcohol related harm, more drug misuse and more people diagnosed with diabetes.

In terms of life expectancy and causes of death, men and women in Rochdale have a significantly lower life expectancy than the national average, there are more deaths from smoking in the borough, more early deaths from heart disease and stroke and more early deaths from cancer.

The town is performing significantly better than the national average in three areas, the numbers of physically active children, the number of excess winter deaths and the number of injuries and deaths in road accidents.

There are inequalities across the borough depending on deprivation, gender and ethnicity, with men and women in the least deprived areas expected to live around nine years longer than those in the most deprived areas.

Death rates from all causes and early death rates from heart disease, stroke and cancer have all decreased over the last ten years but the rates for Rochdale remain above the national average.

Sheila Will, director of public health at NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale, commented: “Firstly, it is important to recognise that the Rochdale Borough has more deprivation than most areas of the North West, which means it has more health problems which are very difficult to tackle.

“Although the borough is in the bottom 10% for many health indicators, six of these have actually improved since last year; notably deaths from smoking and deaths from heart disease and stroke, which are our biggest killers.

“The Health Profile also highlights some key successes. We are the only PCT in Greater Manchester in the top 10% for having low numbers of deaths over winter, reflecting the excellent partnership between the PCT and affordable warmth team in Rochdale Borough Council.

“We also have low numbers of deaths due to road injuries and we are no longer in the bottom 10 per cent for early deaths from cancer which is likely to improve even further following our hugely successful ‘Cancer Chancer’ campaign.”