 |
|
|
About this series |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Each overview in the Focus on series combines data from the 2001 Census and other sources to illustrate its topic, and provide links to further information. This online overview is accompanied by a full report which contains more comprehensive analysis. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Focus on Health describes the health of people living in the UK across five key dimensions: health status, risk factors, ill-health, preventive, curative and long-term care services and mortality. Emphasis is placed on trends over time.
Over the last 25 years, improvements in survival have resulted in more people living longer and an increasing proportion of deaths occurring in older ages. However, there remain substantial social and geographical variations in health status, with people who are disadvantaged in terms of their educational, employment and socio-economic background having higher rates of reported poor health and limitations in daily activities. On average, the population in England had better reported health than the other countries in the UK.
Trends in behaviour such as smoking and heavy drinking and increases in obesity and sexually transmitted diseases which are known risk factors for disease and poor outcomes are not improving, particularly among young people.
|
|
