... and statistics

The June issue of Health Statistics Quarterly from the Office of National Statistics provides some useful inequalities data (topics include adult female mortality, infant deaths and chronic illness).

Gypsy and Traveller Communities

Primary Care Contracting has issued a Primary Care Service Framework for gypsy and traveller communities, Public Health Update reports. The PCSF is designed to help PCTs "extend entitlement" to these traditionally hard to reach groups.

Rehab

Record numbers of young people were treated for drug problems last year, a Radio 1 news feature announced. The data provided by the National Treatment Agency suggests that the rise is simply in treatment levels rather than reflective of increased drug use. The NTA has also released a report identifying good practice in rehabilitation and detoxifiation centres.

Smoking Cessation Services

The latest issue of the Journal of Public Health includes a systematic review of strategies to enhance access of disadvantaged groups to smoking cessation programmes that makes quite bleak reading. The team of researchers considered 48 studies, around half from the UK, but found few that provided clear evidence of success, partly owing to a lack of reporting of socioeconomic data. However, the authors do note that NHS stop smoking services have managed to reach smokers living in disadvantaged areas. They also identify good practice, such as the use of "health equity audits" to interrogate client data and ensure that services are reaching disadvantaged groups. Meanwhile the Department of Health has announced a "new systems-based approach", modelled on the process used by stop smoking services in Yorkshire and Humberside.

What's bred in the bone

The foundations of adult disease can be laid by developmental and biological disruptions in early childhood, argue the authors of an article in The Journal of the American Medical Association, highlighted by Dr Buttery's Public Health BLOG. The article focuses on how neuroscience can inform the debate, but other articles in the issue, which has a child and adolescent health theme, look at futher health promotion and access to healthcare issues.

Safer Together
...is the theme of National Child Safety Week (22-28 June). The Child Accident Prevention Trust has put together an information pack for anyone working with children and young people and there's also a website.

Childhood Obesity

It's more likely that children from poorer communities in London will be obese than those from more affluent families, the London Health Observatory reported last week. The LHO's report consitutes the first detailed analysis of local level data from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) for 2006-8. NCMP data was released earlier this month. The LHOs' director praised PCTs and local authorities for the quality of data recording, but noted that the figures constituted "a striking finding for both London’s most deprived and for black communities.” Risk of obesity was highest amongt children from the poorest boroughs, with with a range of 6% to 14% for children in reception year, and from 12% to 26% in year 6. Additionally, there was a significantly higher risk of obesity for children from black ethnic minority groups in both year groups than other ethnic groups. Overall, London's figures are higher than the national average, too. The National Obesity Observatory's May newsletter provides a useful survey of data on obesity and deprivation.