Self-reported measures of health and wellbeing
Limiting long-term illness
At the 2001 Census there were estimated to be 27,600 people in Blackburn with Darwen (20% of the population) reporting a Limiting Long Term Illness (LLTI), compared to the national average of 18%.
This crude LLTI rate ranks Blackburn with Darwen 126th local authority area in the country. After age-standardisation, Blackburn with Darwen rises to 54th, indicating that our young local age structure reduces the level of LLTI relative to other UK districts.
Psychological distress
The 2006 East Lancashire Health and Community Survey found that more than 1 in 4 women and almost 1 in 5 men who responded had evidence of significant psychological distress. This is higher than the results from national surveys indicating 1 in 7 women and 1 in 9 men respectively having evidence of significant psychological distress.
Local people reporting financial strain were over 8 times were more likely to have evidence of psychological distress than those who said they were comfortably off.
Healthy Life Expectancy
Total life expectancy at birth is widely used as an indicator of the state of a population's health.
In more recent years, in response to dramatic increases in life expectancy over the last century and uncertainties surrounding the impact of an aging population on the demand for health and social care services, there has been growing interest in the question ‘are the extra years gained lived in good health ?’
An attempt is made to answer this question by extending the concept of life expectancy to ‘health expectancy’, that is to say, the number of years expected to be lived in good health or without a disability.
In 2004, health expectancy figures at birth and at age 65 were published for all Local Authorities (see Table 1). These were based on answers to self-reported health and wellbeing questions in the 2001 Census, and included;
Table 1. Life expectancy; total, healthy and disability-free, at birth.
Table 2. Life expectancy; total, healthy and disability-free, at age 65.
In Blackburn with Darwen, the number of years lived in poor health or with a disability, is higher than the national average.
This has a significant impact on the need for services and represents a major challenge for us locally; to increase the priority given to prevention, in the face of greater need for treatment.
However, local people would reap the reward of living longer, in better health.
