Trends in children and young people’s care - Emergency admission statistics 1996-2006 for children and young people aged 0 -19 years over the period 1996/97 to 2006/07,  including information on trends for:

• different age groups
• selected consultant specialties most likely to be involved in the care of children and young people
• emergency admission methods
• length of stay in hospital

It’s Thursday (traditional Top of the Pops day) and the moment you get to ask the traditional question on the meaning of life ‘Steve Wright: Why?’ and ‘Paul Gambaccini, is it a stage name?’ Anyway this week we get the The Links Between Diet and Behaviour: The influence of nutrition on mental health strolling into the chart as Currently Reading and Who’s who? trade blows and swap places.

It’s Thursday (traditional Top of the Pops day) and time to see the future of Dad Dancing on the screen.  A week of stasis this again….. I say vote Library Catalogue!

It’s Thursday (traditional Top of the Pops day) and time to groove on down to the sounds of Fred Wedlock’s ‘Oldest Swinger in Town’. A week of stasis this week…..

It’s Thursday (traditional Top of the Pops day) and time to pull on yer leg warmers and pop on those deely-boppers. This week see’s the return of the Library Catalogue upo 1 place as the Sociology of Health and Illness 29(6) drops a place.

The third quarterly report on NHS finance and service performance shows that the NHS is still on course for a £1.8 billion surplus for this financial year, with only seventeen trusts reporting a deficit. This surplus is about two per cent of the overall NHS budget.

It’s Thursday (traditional Top of the Pops day) and because we can do it with a bunch of stat’s we’ve not seen before we’ve introduced a post chart. Here’s your top 10 for this week, without less Wham! than you might expect.
Big winner of the week is the GP Notebook storming back into the chart and rising one place is Sociology of Health and Illness 29(6) , meanwhile the Library Catalogue tumbles 2 places and Contact Fade falls out of the chart.

Established in 2005, the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) weighs and measures children in reception (aged 4 to 5 years) and year 6 (aged 10 to 11 years) to assess overweight and obese levels. In 2006/2007, 876,416 primary school children were measured (80 per cent of those eligible). Almost one in four five-year olds and one in three 11-year olds is overweight or obese, according to the national child measurement programme. Rates of obesity are worst in the North East, West Midlands and London, the NHS Information Centre’s NCMP NCMP 2006/07 bulletin report said.

• NCMP 2006/07 online database
• NCMP 2006/07 data tables

It’s Thursday (traditional Top of the Pops day) and because we can do it with a bunch of stat’s we’ve not seen before we’ve introduced a post chart, so here’s your top 10 for this week, without Pan’s People jigging about and getting your Dad hot under the collar.

Big winner of the week is the Library Catalogue rising two places as Sociology of Health and Illness 29(6) falls a similar number of places.

It’s Thursday (traditional Top of the Pops day) and because we can do it with a bunch of stat’s we’ve not seen before we’ve introduced a post chart, so here’s your top10 for this week, and not a Womble or member of the Sweet in sight.

This week Heart Disease Statistics storms to the top of the charts as About’s bubble is burst and we have a new entry from Contact Fade as GP Notebook drops out.

It’s Thursday (traditional Top of the Pops day) and because we can do it with a bunch of stat’s we’ve not seen before we’ve introduced a post chart, so here’s your top10 for this week.

These give details on how and on what over £41 billion of NHS expenditure was used in the 2006/07 financial year.   The main purpose is to provide a basis for comparison within (and outside) the NHS between organisations, and down to the level of individual treatments.

• Overview and summary
• Appendix RC1 Reference Costs Index (RCI)
• Appendix NSRC1 - NHS trust reference cost schedules
• Appendix NSRC2 - Primary care trust reference cost schedules
• Appendix NSRC3 - PMS and pilot reference cost schedules
• Appendix NSRC4 - NHS trust and PCT combined reference cost schedules
• Appendix NSRC5 - Non-NHS providers schedules

Predicably causing controversy in the mass media these are the latest results from the mandatory monitoring of Staphylococcus aureus (including methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA) bacteraemia and glycopeptide resistant enterococcal bacteraemia in October 2003, C. difficile associated disease.

• Commentary for Clostridium difficile. January 2008
• Commentary for MRSA bacteraemia. January 2008
• Table 1. Clostridium difficile quarterly, in patients aged 65 years and over, January 2006-September 2007 (counts only)
• Table 2. Clostridium difficile quarterly, in patients aged 2-64 years, April 2007-September 2007 (counts only)
• Table 3. Clostridium difficile annual January 2004-December 2006
• Table 4. MRSA bacteraemia quarterly April 2006-September 2007 (counts only)
• Table 5. MRSA bacteraemia 6-monthly April 2001-September 2007
• Table 6. MRSA bacteraemia annual April 2001-September 2007

In a Press Release from the Office of National Statistics relating to the publication of

• Smoking and drinking among adults 2006
• Drinking: adults’ behaviour and knowledge in 2007

Key findings were:

• Alcohol consumption in 2006 was higher in England and in Wales than in Scotland: 13.7 and 13.5 units a week, on average, respectively, compared with 11.6 units.

• Men and women in households classified as ‘routine and manual’ drank less (11.6 units a week), on average, than those in other types of household. Those in ‘managerial and professional’ households drank the most (15.1 units a week).

• The overall prevalence of cigarette smoking among the adult population (persons aged 16 years and over) fell to 22 per cent in 2006, its lowest recorded level. This downturn follows a period of little change since the second half of the 1990s, when prevalence levelled out at about 27 per cent before resuming a slow decline in the early 2000s.

From the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health today is the report Saving Mothers’ Lives Reviewing maternal deaths to make motherhood safer 2003-2005. It finds that obesity is the fastest growing cause of women dying in pregnancy or childbirth in the UK. More than half the 294 women who died during or after pregnancy between 2003 and 2005 were overweight or obese. Experts say the number of deaths - from a total of two million pregnancies - is low - but the trend is very worrying.

They have also published:

Diabetes in Pregnancy: Caring for the baby after birth which sets out the results of a special audit set up to examine in greater depth a number of neonatal care issues including neonatal morbidity, establishment of breast feeding, separation of mothers and babies, and NHS resources. The CEMACH report contains recommendations for policy and practice and should be considered by health service commissioners and managers, and clinical staff of all disciplines, not simply those directly involved in neonatal care.

The north and south of Britain stand divided when it comes to anything from property prices to obesity. Now the British Heart Foundation (via their Heartstats page) is warning the same applies to heart disease and deprivation is to blame.

Steven Allender, Viv Peto, Peter Scarborough, Anna Boxer and Mike Rayner (2007) Coronary heart disease statistics. BHF: London

It identifies:

• mortality and morbidity deal with demographic trends in CHD and related diseases of the circulatory system.

• the main modifiable risk factors for the disease: smoking, an unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, a high alcohol consumption, poor psychosocial wellbeing, raised blood pressure, raised blood cholesterol, obesity and diabetes.

• the economic costs of CHD.

Drug Misuse Declared: Findings from the 2006/07 British Crime Survey, England and Wales

• The 2006/07 BCS estimates that 35.5% of 16 to 59 year olds have used one or more illicit drugs in their lifetime, 10.0% used one or more illicit drugs in the last year and 5.9% in the last month.

• The survey also estimates that 13.8% of those aged 16 to 59 have used a Class A drug at least once in their lifetime, 3.4% used at least one Class A drug in the last year and 1.7% last month.

• Cannabis is the drug most likely to be used. The 2006/07 BCS indicates that 8.2% of 6 to 59 year olds reported using cannabis in the last year. Cocaine is the next most ommonly used drug with 2.6% reporting use of any form of it (either cocaine powder r crack cocaine) in the last year.

• Use of ecstasy in the last year is estimated at 1.8%, amyl nitrite at 1.4% and amphetamine use at 1.3%. The use of hallucinogens (LSD and magic mushrooms) in he last year was reported by 0.7% of 16 to 59 year olds.

• This is the first year that questions on ketamine have been asked in the BCS. Use of ketamine in the past year was reported by 0.3% of 16 to 59 year olds.

• It is estimated that just over 11 and a quarter million people aged 16 to 59 in Englandand Wales have used illicit drugs in their lifetime, while just under three and a quarter million are estimated to have used illicit drugs in the last year and almost two million in the last month.

• It is also estimated that just under four and a half million people aged 16 to 59 have used Class A drugs in their lifetime with just over one million having used them in the last year and just over 500 thousand in the last month.

• When looking at specific types of drugs, it is estimated that just over 800,000 people used cocaine powder and just over 550,000 people used ecstasy in the last year.

• The proportion of 16 to 59 year olds who used any illicit drug in the last year was lower in 2006/07 than in 1998, mainly due to successive declines in cannabis use since 2003/04.

• There was no statistically significant difference between 2005/06 and 2006/07 in the overall level of any illicit drug use in the last year.

• Class A drug use in the past year among 16 to 59 year olds was higher in 2006/07 than in 1998. This is mainly due to a comparatively large increase in cocaine powder use between 1998 and 2000. However between 2000 and 2006/07 the use of Class A drugs overall remained stable. The use of hallucinogens decreased overall between 1998 and 2006/07.

• The figures for 2006/07, compared to 2005/06, show a stable pattern for all Class A
  drugs, with the exception of magic mushrooms which show a decrease in the past
  year.

The Health profile of England 2007 provides a collation of national and regional data to provide a baseline against which people can compare data from their own Local Health Profile (LHP). The 2007 report updates tables showing regional comparisons and national trends for indicators presented in LHP, as well as a wide ranging snapshot of public health and well-being in England and a section on international comparisons.

• A general improvement in health outcome
  The report shows recent improvements in a number of critical areas, e.g.:
  • declining mortality rates in targeted killers (cancers, all circulatory diseases and suicides)
  • increasing life expectancy, now at its highest ever level
  • reducing infant mortality, now at its lowest ever level

Challenges remain to achieve and sustain progress, e.g.:
• rising rates of diabetes

• Similarly for the determinants of health,
  • Improvements in some important areas, e.g.:
  • the number of people who smoke
  • quality of housing stock
  • Areas of concern, e.g.:
  • increasing levels of obesity in adults and children
  • high levels of teenage pregnancy
• Health inequalities are often present
  • The report illustrates various geographical inequalities across the UK
• International comparisons give a wider context presenting national progress in comparison to countries of the European Union (EU), or to the 15 countries that were members of the EU prior to 2004 (EU-15), e.g.:
  • Premature mortality rates from the two biggest killers, circulatory diseases and cancer, are reducing faster in England than the average for the EU
  • Death rates from motor vehicle traffic accidents in the United Kingdom are amongst the lowest in EU
  • The prevalence of obesity in England is the highest in the EU
  • Death rates for chronic liver disease and cirrhosis have risen markedly, particularly since the mid-1990s, and for females, latest data show England has risen above the EU-15 average
  • The percentage of all live births to mothers under age 20 in the United Kingdom remains the highest when compared to other EU-15 countries.

You can see the mass media’s take on this report on 23rd October 2007.

Health Profiles provide a snapshot of health for each local council in England using key health indicators which enables comparison locally, regionally and nationally as well as over time. They are designed to help local councils and the NHS decide where to target resources to tackle health inequalities in their local area. Health Profiles are quality assured by APHO (Association of Public Health Observatories).

For smaller area data in the North West, check out the North West Public Health Observatory’s Data Selector which provides data at a Middle Level Super Output Area (MSOA) level these have similar boundaries to but not exactly coterminous with wards.

The other site that Fade finds useful when we get the regular visits from students asking us about data for local areas is ‘Up My Street’ which in addition to useful information about local facilites included Acorn profiles that can be useful in understanding the local population.

10 months ago we introduced along with the other library folk in Cheshire and Merseyside the BMJ Journals collection online. Ever since then periodically we have studied the statistics on use periodically and considered the value of the collection to the PCT. Sometimes it’s been a struggle retrieving the stats, so there is much rejoicing in the Fade crew today when we discover that our use of the resource is worth currently £865 more (value of the British Library Interlending Requests that we haven’t made) than we paid for the resource and we’ve still a full two months to go before the 12 months of the initial subscription is up. So pat yourselves on the back, your use of this set of e-resources is significant. Exact use to date is: