User guide to the Health Profiles
Background and Context
The English Public Health Observatories (PHOs) published their first set of 386 local authority Health Profiles in 2006 in response to the government White Paper ‘Choosing Health: Making Healthy Choices Easier’ which required PHOs to produce reports designed for local communities at local authority level which support Directors of Public Health in promoting health in their area. The full set of Health Profiles 2006 together with their associated documents, can be found on this site at the Find Profiles page.
The next generation of reports, Health Profiles 2007 have now been produced and are also available on this site at the Find Profiles page. This new set of 386 local authority health profiles continues to be a concise summary of population health at local authority level aiming to influence the work of local strategic partnerships, particularly local government and primary care trusts.
Aims and Objectives
The Association of Public Health Observatories was commissioned by the Department of Health Information and Intelligence Task Force to produce local authority Health Profiles (HPs). A profile has been produced for each of the 386 local authorities in England (County, District, Unitary and London Borough). Isles of Scilly and City of London have been excluded due to data limitations.
The White Paper also included the commitment to publish a health profile of England in 2006. The core indicators for both of these projects are aligned.
The aims of the profiles are:
- To provide a consistent, concise, comparable and balanced overview of the population’s health that informs local needs assessment, policy, planning, performance management, surveillance and practice.
- To be a distillate of the absolutely key, most useful (currently available) indicators (with a reference to new data/indicators and unavailable data/indicators).
- To be primarily of use to joint efforts between local government and the health service to improve health and reduce health inequalities, but ultimately to empower the wider community.
The profiles are available as pdf reports. The audience includes healthcare and public health professionals and local authority members and officers. The profiles describe the health of the local population and enable comparison locally, regionally and nationally as well as over time. It is hoped that they will be used for action planning by local strategic partnerships.
About Health Profiles 2007 Indicators
The indicators in the Health Profiles had to be those which were available on a consistent basis for 386 local authorities in England. The criteria for choosing the indicators included:
- Important impact on the health of the population
- Support for local government and NHS management frameworks
- Is valid, i.e. does it measure what it purports to measure
- Is primarily based on existing indicators (although crucial to highlight non-existent and new data where important)
- Is primarily available at Local Authority level (although sub-LA data will be explored)
- Is amenable to meaningful comparison over time, place, person
- Can be communicated easily to a wide audience.
The following table lists the indicators used in Health Profiles 2007 and the changes, if any, from the indicators used in Health Profiles 2006 (click on the indicator names to view more detailed metadata on each indicator):
| Domain | Page 4 Health Summary Indicator | Changes in HP2007, if any, from HP2006 |
| Our communities | Income deprivation | Indicator changed from IMD to updated Combined Income Indicator |
| Ecological Footprint | Indicator changed from air quality to ecological footprint | |
| Homelessness | Indicator changed from poor quality housing to homelessness | |
| Children in poverty | Indicator and data the same as HP1. | |
| GCSE achievement (5A*-C) | Indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. | |
| Violent Crime | Indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. | |
| Giving children and young people a healthy start | Smoking in pregnancy | GAP Same as HP1 |
| Breast feeding | GAP Same as HP1 | |
| Obese children | GAP Same as HP1 | |
| Physically active children | GAP Same as HP1 | |
| Teenage pregnancy (under 18) | Indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. | |
| The way we live | People who smoke (Upper Tier Local Authority;Lower Tier Local Authority) | Indicator and data the same as HP1 |
| Binge drinking (Upper Tier Local Authority; Lower Tier Local Authority) | Indicator and data the same as HP1 | |
| Healthy eating adults (Upper Tier Local Authority; Lower Tier Local Authority) | Indicator and data the same as HP1 | |
| Physically active adults | New indicator and data from Sport England survey. GAP in HP1. | |
| Obese adults (Upper Tier Local Authority; Lower Tier Local Authority) | Indicator and data the same as HP1 | |
| How long we live and what we die of | Life expectancy male | Indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. |
| Life expectancy female | Indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. | |
| Early deaths from smoking | Indicator the same as HP1. Data and methodology updated. | |
| Early deaths: heart disease and stroke | Indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. | |
| Early deaths: Cancer | Indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. | |
| Infant deaths | Indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. | |
| Road injuries and deaths | Indicator changed from People killed or seriously injured per 100 million vehicle kilometres to People Killed and Seriously injured per resident population | |
| Health and ill health in our community | Feeling “in poor health” | Indicator and data the same as HP1. |
| Mental health | Indicator changed from mental health treatment to Claimants / beneficiaries of Incapacity benefit / severe disablement allowance with mental or behavioural disorders | |
| Alcohol related hospital stays | Indicator the same as HP1 but with analysis for 1 year as opposed to the aggregated 5 year in HP1 | |
| Drug misuse treatment | Indicator changed from drug misuse treatment to Home Office drug misuse prevalence estimates. | |
| People with diabetes | Indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. | |
| Children’s tooth decay | Indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. | |
| Sexually transmitted infections | GAP Same as HP1 | |
| Older people: hip fracture | Indicator changed from older people supported at home to hospital admissions for fractured neck of femur in older people | |
| Domain | Page 2 Inequalities Indicators | Changes in HP2007, if any, from HP2006 |
| Income Inequalities: a national perspective | National Income Deprivation quintiles by Middle Super Output Area | Indicator changed from IMD to updated Combined Income Indicator. Presentation changed to map of national quintiles based on middle super output areas map with ward boundaries outlined. |
| Income Inequalities: a local perspective | Local Income Deprivation quintiles by Middle Super Output Area | Indicator changed from IMD to updated Combined Income Indicator. Presentation changed to map of local quintiles based on middle super output areas map with ward boundaries outlined. |
| Health Inequalities: a local perspective | Life Expectancy (males, females) by local income deprivation quintiles | Life expectancy indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. Presentation changed to bar chart of life expectancy, males, females, by local income deprivation quintile. |
| Domain | Page 3 Inequalities Indicators | Changes in HP2007, if any, from HP2006 |
| Health Inequalities: changes over time | Life expectancy at birth by time | Indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. |
| Health Inequalities: changes over time | Early death rates from heart disease and stroke by time | Indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. |
| Health Inequalities: changes over time | Early death rates from cancer | Indicator the same as HP1. Data updated. |
| Health Inequalities: ethnicity | Percentage and number of people aged 16 – 64 years in routine and manual occupations by ethnic groups | Indicator changed from GCSE achievement by ethnic group to the percentage of the population in the “routine and manual” groups by ethnic group |