Health Profiles

Shelley Bradley & Helen Shaw

The Origins of Health Profiles

Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier

‘ Choosing Health: Making healthy choices easier ’ (2004) reflects a growing movement to address wider health determinants and states that:

“ Public Health Observatories will produce reports designed for local communities at local authority level which will support Directors of Public Health in promoting health in their area ”

The Purpose of Health Profiles

• To provide a consistent, concise, comparable and balanced overview of the population’s health that informs local needs assessment, policy, planning, performance management, surveillance and practice

• To be a summary of the most useful available health indicators

• To support joint efforts between local government and the health service to improve health and reduce health inequalities

• To empower the wider community

Health Profiles 2008

Three versions: Local Authorities, Counties, Regional

Health Profiles 2008

“ The main dangers in this life are the people who want to change everything . . . or nothing ”

(Nancy Astor, 1879 – 1964)

Health Profiles 2008 Content

Page 1

• Map of the area• Brief text summary

Health Profiles 2008 Content

Page 2 (top)

• Map of national deprivation

• Map of local deprivation

Health Profiles 2008 Content

Page 2 (bottom)

• Chart of life expectancy by deprivation for men and women

Health Profiles 2008 Content

Page 3 (top)

Trend charts – of all age all cause

mortality, – early deaths form

heart disease & stroke

– early deaths form cancer

Health Profiles 2008 Content

Page 3 (bottom)

• Chart of eligibility for free schools meals by ethnic group.

Health Profiles 2008 Content

Page 4

• Spine chart of 32 health indicators.

• Highlights whether better or worse than England average.

Indicators

1. Do you frequently use indicators?

2. Are these locally or nationally produced?

3. How well are they understood?

Health Profiles 2008

Four things to know and accept about indicators

1. Indicators only indicate

2. Indicators encourage explicitness

3. Indicators usually rely on numbers and numerical techniques

4. Indicators should not just be associated with fault-finding

Health Profiles 2008 Content

Health Profiles 2008 Production Process

• To produce 386 profiles, packed with charts, maps & bullet points, some tasks are delegated and some done centrally.

• Each regional PHO advises on the best choice of indicator for several topics.

• These are divided between the 9 PHOs for the data to be collated, and quality assured.

• The text summary is the only element for which local knowledge is a necessity.

• Each PHO writes the summary for the profiles in their region, with input from local councils, PCTs and other partners.

• Turning all the raw data and text into hundreds of precision-formatted maps, charts into profiles is performed centrally by a specially developed computer tool.

Health Profiles 2008 Website

Health Profiles 2008 Website Interactive

Health Profiles 2008 Website Interactive

Health Profiles 2008

Website V’s Hardcopy

• Is having access to information behind the health profiles in this way useful?

• How would you use this information?

• What in additional in-built functions would be useful e.g ability to draw charts/maps, compare with like areas?

Health Profiles 2008

Summary

• Provide a consistent, concise, comparable and balanced overview of the population’s health

• Target local government, healthcare managers and public health professionals

• To inform local needs assessment, policy, planning, performance management, surveillance and practice

• To improve health and reduce health inequalities

Available from 24th June 2008 at

www.healthprofiles.info