Health Survey for England Jenny Harris [email protected].

Health Survey for England

Jenny [email protected]

HSE 2005Health of Older People• Joint Health Surveys Unit (JHSU) of NatCen and Dept.

Epidemiology and Public Health at Royal Free and University Medical School

• Carried out on behalf of the Information Centre for Health and Social Care

HSE 2005Health of Older PeopleSample• Full-sized general population sample, child boost plus boost

sample sample of older adults (aged 65 and over)• Core sample: 7,630 adults aged 16 and over and 1,852 children

• Boost sample: 1,142 children aged 2-15 and sample of 2,673

older adults • Total 4402 adults aged 65 and over• 71% household RR (core), 74% household RR (boost)

• 89% RR among adults in co-operative HH• 97% RR among older adults in co-operative HH

HSE 2005Health of Older PeopleInterview and nurse visit for older people:Core interview topics

• General health, alcohol consumption, smoking, fruit, vegetables, height and weight

Additional topics • Use of health services, dental and social care services, CVD, chronic

diseases, quality of care, disabilities and falls

Nurse visit• BP, waist-hip circumference, demi-span and tests of physical

function, blood and urine

Five volumes

The health of older people:

1. General health and function

2. Chronic diseases

3. Social capital and health

4. Mental health and wellbeing

5. Methodology and documentation

Key findings

• Many people aged 65 and over lead healthy and active lives, but others face severe health challenges as they get older

• Inequalities in health• Nearly 2 in 3 adults aged 65 and over suffer from

high blood pressure • Roughly 1 in 4 is obese • Over a quarter of women and more than a fifth of

men have symptoms of depression

Health and disability

• More than half say their health is ‘good’ or ‘very good’

• 71 % have a longstanding illness

• 42% of men and 46% of women said this limited their activities

• Around 2 in 5 had at least one functional limitation (sight, hearing, communicating, walking, using stairs)

Mobility problems

Upper body strength

Walking impairment

Falls

High blood pressure

• Around 2 in 3 had high blood pressure (nurse visit)

• 3 in 5 are receiving treatment for hypertension;– Of these, only 1 in 2 were on adequately controlling their

blood pressure

• Varied by income (lowest income = highest prevalence)

Cardiovascular disease

Arthritis

Overweight and obesity

Mental illness• Identification and treatment

• Mental illness in old age is common but often not recognised

• Even when recognised often does not receive adequate or appropriate management

• Prevalence• 4% of men and 7% of women aged 65 + reported

emotional, nervous or psychiatric problems (doctor diagnosed)

• 28% of women and 22% of men had high Geriatric Depression Scores

Geriatric Depression Score

HSE 2005 report

Published mid March 2007 on the Information Centre website- hard copies now available

www.ic.nhs.uk

Trend tables published in December 2006

HSE 2006

• Full size sample (general population and child boost)

• Fieldwork is complete• Data editing and weighting• Report published December 2007

• Cardiovascular disease– doctor diagnosed & undiagnosed

• Children– obesity and other risk factors

HSE 2007

• Half-size sample, and child boost sample• Currently in-field• Focus on:

• children’s health and lifestyles (obesity)• knowledge and attitudes (adults and children aged 11+)• monitoring the effect of smoke free legislation

• …reporting 2008 on children’s health and on

HSE 2008 Physical Activity

• Focus of 2008 likely to be physical activity

• Currently in the development stage• Physical activity = complex to measure• HSE already contains a module of questions on physical

activity

HSE physical activity development work• Three aspects of the development work:

• Cognitive Pilot

• Validation Study

• Step test

Cognitive pilot

• This stage of the development is complete

• Tested 2 separate physical activity questionnaires:

• Adult (16+)• Children

Validation Study

• Validating the revised questions against OBJECTIVE measure of physical activity… THE ACTIGRAPH

• Physical activity monitor worn on a belt • Like a pedometer• We are asking respondents to wear it:

• For two 7-day periods (adults)• For one 7-day period (children)

• A feasibility study for mainstage HSE

The step test

•Fitness is an independent health risk factor - should we be collecting data on this as well as obesity and physical activity?

•Feasibility study

•Measure fitness using a step test

And finally… use of HSE data

• Some current data requests:

• Use of stored bloods in further research

• Mortality Data

Thank you

Questions?