Ill health

This section concentrates on the health conditions people experience. Being free from illness is part of being healthy but there are other aspects as well which are explored in other parts of this website. The World Health Organization defines health as:

a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity

Rates of ill-health are commonly reported as rates per 100,000 population or prevalences.

• Prevalance refers to the total number of individuals in a population who have a disease or health condition at a specific period of time, usually expressed as a percentage of the population.
• Incidence refers to the number of individuals who develop a specific disease or experience a specific health-related event during a particular time period (such as a month or year).

Disease rates (for example) are often standardised. This means adjusting for the fact that different areas have different age profiles, which affects the likelihood of people being diagnosed with health conditions.

The Bolton picture

• Global burden of disease - from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation. Visualisation showing cause of deaths/ years lived with disability/ disability adjusted life years for Bolton and other geographies, also giving age and gender breakdowns and change over time.
• CVD PREVENT - The Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Audit (CVDPREVENT) is a national primary care audit that automatically extracts routinely held GP data. This tool provides open access to the data, with clear, actionable insights for those tasked with improving cardiovascular health in England.
• NHS Hospital Trust catchments - which hospital people attend for treatment depending on where they live, and how people who attend a certain hospital compare with people who live within its catchment.
• Local authority health profile - from OHID
• Health protection dashboard - from OHID
• Estimated prescribing patterns for care home patients aged 65 years or over - from NHSBA
• NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBA) open data portal. Current datasets include those on dispensing of medicines, dental activity is coming soon.
• NHS Organsiation Data Service - datasets on NHS organisations such as list of all GP practices

Further useful links

• What is population health? - really lovely short animation from the King's Fund explaining how healthy communities are defined by much more than access to healthcare
• Compendium of population health indicators - from NHS Digital
• Atlases of variation - these help to identify unwarranted variation and assess the value that healthcare provides to both populations and individuals
  Interactive atlases - give more flexibility but fewer topics
  Static atlases - give less flexibility but more topics
• Health in 2040: projected patterns of illness in England - from The Health Foundation
• Major conditions strategy - from DHSC
• Healthcare Inequalities: Access to NHS prescribing and exemption schemes in England - from NHSBA
• Access to unplanned or urgent care - report from the National Audit Office
• NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBA) open data portal. Current datasets include those on dispensing of medicines, dental activity is coming soon.
• NHS Organsiation Data Service - datasets on NHS organisations such as list of all GP practices
• Identifying evidence to support action to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in health - from LJMU and Public Health Wales
• Healthwatch Bolton quarterly intelligence reports - summarising feedback received on health and care services in Bolton