Where you live in Carlisle can shorten your life by nine years
Last updated at 12:31, Thursday, 04 December 2008
Carlisle's postcode health lottery is robbing some residents in less affluent areas of up to nine years of life, say health chiefs.
People from Botcherby, where life expectancy is 74, can also typically expect to suffer from at least 10 years of life-limiting illness, while in some better off areas of the city life expectancy is up to 83, with an expected five years of restrictive illness.
The figures were aired at a conference yesterday as health bosses launched a major bid to win Healthy City status for Carlisle.
If approved, the status will ensure that health is a central criteria in any future developments in Carlisle.
Research shows that many people suffer earlier death or more illness because of avoidable lifestyle choices.
Experts insist that towns and cities can be designed to encourage healthier lifestyles.
Carlisle is now gearing up to bid for Healthy City status in the hope of investing cash in encouraging more healthy living.
A conference yesterday drew around 80 Carlisle health, community and emergency services figures to discuss ways to improve quality of life.
It was revealed that life expectancy in Upperby is 75 with an average of ten years of suffering from life-limiting illness. By comparison, life expectancy in wealthier Stanwix is 82, while in Wetheral it is 81.
In Botcherby, life expectancy plummets to just 74.
Cumbria’s director of public health, Professor John Ashton, said at the meeting: “Carlisle has some serious problems.
“People have a shorter life expectancy than the national average, they are more likely to smoke and drink, they exercise less and eat less well.
“Different life expectancies for people living in different parts of the city is unacceptable in the modern day age.
“We have to change our way of thinking. Health is not just about doctors and nurses and hospitals. A city is a place to grow people, it is where they live, love and play.
“This is about making the environment more supportive of living a healthy life.”
Professor Ashton said examples of healthy environments may include more cycle paths to encourage cycling, or urban landscapes that encourage walking rather than driving.
He said as people live to greater ages, caring for those with dementia would become increasingly important.
Mr Ashton also said residents’ involvement in creating a healthy city will be critical.
Sensible attitudes to alcohol would also be a major goal. “We are swimming in booze at the moment. It is incredibly cheap, and we know the easier it is the more people have problems with it,” said Mr Ashton.
“We’ve made it very easy for youngsters to get hold of. “It leads to unsafe sex, violence and domestic violence. Brits think alcohol is a joke and we need to get real about it.”He said the issues of the young must also be tackled by the community.“
Charlotte Asquith, GP and acting chairman of the Carlisle Locality Commissioning Board, said ”one-stop-shops” are needed where residents could access clinical expertise and diagnostic equipment.
THE FIGURES:
Belle Vue: 73.5
Botcherby: 74.4
Upperby: 75.3
Morton: 76.1
Currock: 76.3
Denton Holme: 76.5
Harraby: 76.6
St Aidan’s: 77.7
Yewdale: 78.6
Belah: 79.1
Stanwix Urban: 81.7
Hayton: 83.2
First published at 11:26, Thursday, 04 December 2008
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
I'm afraid that to suggest that intelligence alone is responsible for the demographic differences is making a massive (and wrong) assunption, Not "being smart" is not confined to the more deprived areas of any city. However living in a culture whereby education is seen as seen as a way of lifting people out of poverty is often a more middle classview of life. |Many people view education as a waste of time and often children are not encouraged to aspire to better education and better jobs. To assume people in "poorer " areas are not as intelligent is both ignorant and insulting
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susan, you're making the mistake of thinking me saying 'on average' means 'every individual'. I don't, and I want emphasise that point.
While the 'average' in stanwix is 82 and in botcherby is 73, it's really neither here nor there. They're averages, not real people. In botcherby there will be people who live to 90 and others who don't make 50. Same in stanwix. Similarly there will be people who do the times crossword in 5 minutes flat down merith avanue and people who'd frown at the sun teabreak quickie down brampton road. In short, the differences internal to each area will be greater than the differences between areas and it's those differences that need looked at.Think about it this way - if you swapped portions of the populations of stanwix and botcherby so that the average in each ward was the same, would that be problem solved? No. Those who made healthy lifestyle choices would still tend to live longer than those who didn'tPosted by Colin Controversial on 5 December 2008 at 15:31