Publications - Recent - Last 20 reports published

The Prevalence of Smoking in the North East

The report describes the sources of data to use for the monitoring and description of smoking prevalence at regional, local authority and small area neighbourhood geographies in the North East. The report also presents and comments on the data from each source to give advice on its use and robustness.

The advised data sources for smoking prevalence are:

General Lifestyle Survey (GLF) for national and regional level reporting
Integrated Household Survey for local authority and regional level data
Synthetic estimates of smoking prevalence for local areas

NDTMS North East Regional Annual Report 2010 using data from 2008-09

This annual report is a historical look at the NDTMS data for adults in substance misuse treatment during 2008-09. It does not reflect the current national picture for young people’s substance misuse treatment in the North East for 2011 or, the 2010 national drug strategy. It reflects the first year in the National Drug strategy for 2008-2018 “Drugs: protecting families and communities, 2008”.

Trends in drug use in the North East

This paper describes the trends of problematic drug use as recorded in the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) for patients resident in the North East at their first presentation for specialist drug treatment. Its purpose is to support the commissioners and providers of drug treatment, and provide intelligence to inform all concerned with the harms drug use can cause to both the individual and the community.

National Drug Treatment Monitoring System Young People's Annual Report 2008-09

Whilst alcohol data had been officially collected since NDTMS was established in 2004-05, 2008-09 was the first year alcohol data was included and available for analysis in the dataset received by the North East National Drug Treatment Monitoring System Team (NDTMS) from the National Treatment Agency (NTA) for Substance Misuse. This report is a historical look at the NDTMS data for young people during 2008-09. It does not reflect the current national picture for young people accessing substance misuse services in the North East for 2011 or, the 2010 national drug strategy.

Briefing: Life expectancy 2008-2010

The Office for National Statistics produced updated life expectancy figures on 19th October 2011 (for further information http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=Population). This briefing provides a summary of the results for the North East.

The Social Care Needs of Short-Sentence Prisoners

This review identified a range of needs among short-sentence (<1 year) prisoners; the presence of multiple needs was common. Needs included: Accommodation; Employment, Training and Education; Finance, Benefit and Debt; Drugs and Alcohol; Family, Relationships and Social Networks; Emotional Wellbeing; Mental Health; Disabilities including Learning Disabilities and Difficulties; and Thinking, Attitudes and Behaviour. Many screening tools are in use but screening and assessment processes are fragmented. The evaluations of a number of successful projects targeting short-sentence prisoners or similar groups are described together with recommendations fornext steps.

Knowledge Transfer within the offender health pathway in the North East

Evidence-based healthcare is important in any setting. This report uses a literature review and interviews to explore knowledge transfer in prison Healthcare and other offender health settings. There is general agreement about the importance of knowledge transfer and an acknowledgement of the particular challenges in prison settings. A number of interesting examples of knowledge transfer practices and initiatives are being undertaken (including knowledge transfer between professionals, locally commissioned research and reviews, training and educational opportunities). But the current knowledge transfer practices are inconsistent so there is a need to develop an evidence base for a model that is appropriate to each setting.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in the North East of England

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is linked to smoking, occupational dust and pollution, and is particularly prevalent in the North East of England. This paper reviews prevalence estimates and highlights the fact that over 32,000 people in the North East are living with undiagnosed COPD. COPD costs the NHS an estimated £491million every year and this paper highlights emergency admission rates for COPD. Mortality rates from COPD in the North East are higher than in England (accounting for 6% of all deaths), and the inequality gap appears to be increasing.

Premature mortality from smoking in the North East of England

Smoking kills over 1,700 people every year in the North East before they reach the age of 70, accounting for 29% of premature deaths in the region compared with 26% of all premature deaths in England. Premature mortality from smoking in the North East is higher for men than for women and the highest rates are seen in Middlesbrough and Newcastle. The majority of these smoking-attributable deaths are from cancer, although smoking also accounts for 82% of the premature deaths from COPD and 32% of the premature deaths from cerebrovascular diseases.

NECCPS Newsletter July 2011

NORTH OF ENGLAND COLLABORATIVE CEREBRAL PALSY SURVEY - JULY 2011

Childhood Obesity in the North East of England: Findings from the 2009/10 NCMP

This resource provides an overview of the National Child Measurement Programme North East findings for the 2009/10 school year.

Bariatric Surgery in the North East of England: A Regional Briefing Paper

This paper assesses the use of surgical procedures to address obesity in the North East over the last four years, to assist:

Health service commissioners: we aim to review the surgery rates, types and variations across the North East in order to provide evidence to improve future commissioning decisions.
Obesity specialists, particularly those involved in bariatric surgery: the paper compares different surgical procedures over time in terms of average patient weight loss and cost, which may support the decision making process for individual patient pathways.
Policy makers: evaluation of changes relating to "Better Health, Fairer Health" should enable policy makers to assess the effectiveness of the strategy and review as necessary.

Cataract Surgery in the North East of England

Cataract is a common and important cause of visual impairment with no proven preventive or medical treatments. The only effective way to restore or maintain vision is surgical removal of the clouded part of the lens (cataract surgery). Cataract surgery is the most common surgical operation carried out in England and is frequently performed on older people since most cataracts are age-related. The benefits of cataract procedures are immense; loss of vision threatens independence and long periods with impaired vision and impaired quality of life increase the likelihood of deterioration in general health.

In this report we use Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data to compare the performance of hospital trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in the North of England against recommendations in Action on Cataracts and averages for the North East and England.

Occasional Paper 44 - Count-Me-In Census of Inmates of the Prison Service October 2009: Wales

This report covers the censuses of in-patients in mental illness and learning disabilities specialties. This was introduced as one of the building blocks of the last UK government's plan to tackle inequalities in access and outcomes for mental health service users from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups.

Migrant Health in North East England

North East England is the smallest and least culturally and ethnically diverse of the nine English regions. Between 1999 and 2008 it received more than ten thousand asylum seekers, several thousand migrant workers and growing numbers of overseas students. The North East Public Health Observatory (NEPHO) produced reports on migrant health in 2002 and 2008.

North East Obesity Service Mapping Report

This is the third annual obesity service audit for the North East. The aim of this report is to provide an overview of all North East obesity interventions (service level tiers 1-4).

SPARCLE North of England Report

This report is about 8-12 year old children with cerebral palsy in the North of England. Researchers visited the 116 children and their families that joined the study. The visits were part of a larger study, the Study of Participation of Children with Cerebral Palsy Living in Europe (SPARCLE), which visited 818 children with cerebral palsy across Europe.

Including migrant populations in Joint Strategic Needs Assessment: a guide

This guide is to assist those involved in JSNAs of migrant populations. It provides practical techniques, sources of data and lists of helpful resources as well as examples of innovative practcce.

APHO Technical Briefing 9: Measuring Sustainable Development

This briefing looks at sustainable development and carbon reduction measurement: the metrics and tools already available, future developments and the wider political and ethical context. The NHS context provides examples, but most of the principles apply to public sector and other institutions generally.

APHO Technical Briefing 8: Prevalence modelling

This is the eighth in a series of technical briefings produced by the Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO), designed to support public health practitioners and analysts and to promote the use of public health intelligence in decision making. Tis briefing discusses the need for prevalence modelling and provides an overview of various methods of generating estimates of the prevalence of diseases or risk factors in local populations. Some of the most common methods for assessing the accuracy and robustness of models are summarised and some of the challenges in developing and using prevalence estimates are considered.