Life Expectancy among locals in St Ann’s ‘is the worse in Nottingham’

Exclusive ST ANN’S has the worst Life Expectancy rate in the city: Age 76 if you are a women & 71 for men. That is the shocking finding of a special report to be given to the ‘Nottingham City Health and Wellbeing Board’ which meets next Wednesday, 24th April.

The committee will receive two reports from health officers. One of the more interesting of these is that of Caroline Hird, Consultant in Public Health, which looks at Life expectancy across the city of Nottingham.

In summery Caroline says “Life expectancy is increasing both nationally and in Nottingham. Current figures show that life expectancy in Nottingham is almost 3 years less than England overall. There is a 14 year gap in life expectancy between Wollaton West and Arboretum for men, and an 11 year gap between Wollaton West and St Ann’s for women.”

She also says that “Nottingham is lagging behind England due to high rates of premature mortality from the 4 ‘big killers’: circulatory disease, cancer, respiratory disease and liver disease.

“These are driven by key lifestyle behaviours with high prevalence in Nottingham City: smoking, low physical activity and unhealthy diet, and harmful use of alcohol. There are wider social determinants of health which influence these lifestyle behaviours.”

In the report Caroline Hird explains “Life expectancy is the number of years that a person can expect to live on average in a given population, and is a commonly used summary measure based on death rates of the population. Life expectancy is calculated from age specific mortality rates in a given population, which are then applied to a hypothetical population of new-born babies to give an indication of how long babies born today could expect to live, given the current age specific mortality rates. As mortality rates fall, the life expectancy in an area increases.

“Life expectancy in England is currently 78.6 for men and 82.6 for women, the Nottingham figures are 75.7 and 80.7 respectively. The Global Burden of Disease study (Lancet, 2013) has shown that whilst mortality rates have fallen nationally over the last 20 years, and hence life expectancy has increased, the increased years of life gained are likely to be spent in ill-health.

“There have always been differences in life expectancy by socioeconomic group due to factors such as affluent groups having better living conditions, nutrition and access to healthcare than more economically deprived groups. These differences persist today. The Marmot review (2010) described a comprehensive picture of unfair distribution of health and length of life in England, with a finely graded relationship between the socioeconomic characteristics of the area in which people live and life expectancy.

“In Nottingham life expectancy is lower than England and this gap is increasing. In the early 1990’s the gap was 2 years and it is now nearly three (see Figure 1). Nottingham has a lower life expectancy than England and a lower life expectancy than the average of its peer local authorities.”