Teenage pregnancies rise in Warwick district

And there are more obese children living here and in villages near Southam than in many other parts of the county, the findings of a report by NHS Warwickshire’s director of public health show.

Reaching Higher: Healthy Lives, Healthy People, Healthy Warwickshire has been put together by Dr John Linnane following an extensive study looking at several different factors that affect the health of people in the county.

Key priorities Dr Linnane has outlined as areas for improvement are obesity, alcohol, cancer, mental health and sexual health.

He said: “Public health is everybody’s responsibility. The decisions we make as individuals with regard to what we eat, how much we exercise, whether we smoke and how we make use of health services make a big difference to our health.

“Likewise, housing, education, and income are all social factors which really can impact on our health.

“We all have a part to play in improving the health of the people of Warwickshire and my report looks at a long-term and wide-ranging approach for achieving significant improvements.”

Among the findings are that it is costing the county’s health authority £300 million a year to deal with alcohol-related harm, but Government estimates indicate that local NHS bodies could save up to £650,000 a year by changing the way they deal with such incidents.

The rate of alcohol-related A&E admissions in Warwickshire is lower than regional and national rates, but it has more than doubled from 689 per 100,000 in 2002-3 to 1,562 per 100,000 in 2009-10 - a 127 per cent increase. This is greater than the regional (120 per cent) and national (88 per cent) increases.

While teenage pregnancies are shown to be as a whole falling in Warwickshire, they are not at the same rate across the county and increased slightly in Warwick district during the past decade.

Meanwhile, the total number of sexually transmitted infections in Warwickshire has risen by more than 20 per cent since 2003.

And while rates of obese children in reception and year 6 is highest in the north of the county, there are significant pockets of obese and overweight children living in Leamington and rural areas of Stratford district.

As well as setting out priorities for NHS services, Dr Linnane has also made recommendations for what local authorities and individuals can do to improve their health.

To read the full report, visit www.warwickshire.nhs.uk/yourhealth/publichealth