Public Health NI - Fact Sheet 2017

The Department of Health today published the 2017 Public Health NI Fact Sheet. This annual publication presents the latest health outcome statistics for Northern Ireland and includes information on general health, mortality and health expectancies at NI, HSC Trust and Local Government District (LGD) levels.

KEY FINDINGS

• Life expectancy in 2014-16 was 78.5 years for males and 82.3 years for females
• Male life expectancy ranged from 80.1 years in Lisburn and Castlereagh LGD to 76.0 years in Belfast LGD area, while female life expectancy ranged from 83.5 years in Lisburn and Castlereagh LGD area to 81.1 years in Belfast LGD area
• In 2014-16, healthy life expectancy at birth was 59.1 years for males and 60.9 years for females
• There were 15.9 suicide deaths per 100,000 population in 2014-16
• The suicide rate was highest in the Belfast HSC Trust (22.1 deaths per 100,000 population) and lowest in the Northern HSC Trust (12.6 deaths per 100,000 population)
• In 2016/17, 17% of respondents scored highly (>4) on the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ12)
• The preventable mortality rate stood at 205 deaths per 100,000 population in 2012-16
• In 2014/15–16/17 there were 2,170 admissions per 100,000 population due to circulatory disease, and 2,055 due to respiratory disease
• Smoking prevalence among adults stood at 20% in 2016/17, and four in five (80%) adults drank alcohol
• The under 17 teenage birth rate stood at 1.7 births per 1,000 population in 2016
• In 2016/17 there were 24.7 admissions to hospital per 100 population

Notes to editors: 

1. The 2017 Public Health NI Fact Sheet is a new annual publication produced by the Public Health Information & Research Branch which is designed to provide a timely update of the latest health outcome statistics. The report includes the latest statistics at NI, HSC Trust and Local Government District levels for a range of public health outcome statistics including mortality rates and life expectancies based on the latest official deaths data published four weeks previously. The report combines the latest information from the Health Survey NI, the NI Health & Social Care Inequalities Monitoring System and other information sources.

2. This release has been produced within two weeks of receipt of the final data to provide a timely a release as possible for the latest figures. To achieve this, the analysis does not include assessments of change nor sub-regional differences. Previous data for earlier years is available online. 

3. This report will be shortly followed by the Health Inequalities Annual Report (due to be published in early 2018) which will replace the biennial publications for regional and sub-regional analysis and will provide analyses of trends and health inequalities across the majority of these public health indicators. In the meantime, further analysis and assistance in assessing change can be provided by Public Health Information & Research Branch upon request.

4. The majority of figures included within this publication are new information however some figures have been taken from information that has already been published in other reports.

5. Life expectancy figures presented for NI have been calculated by Public Health Information & Research Branch as part of the Health & Social Care Inequalities Monitoring System (HSCIMS), it should be noted however that Demography Methodology Branch within NISRA publish the official life expectancy estimates at NI, Local Government District and Parliamentary Constituency level, however figures should be similar.

6. The information presented in this publication is based on data from General Register Office, Hospital Inpatient System, Child Health System, Northern Ireland Cancer Registry, Business Services Organisation, the Health Survey Northern Ireland, Young Persons’ Behaviour and Attitudes Survey, Census of Drug and Alcohol Misuse, Smoking Cessation Database and the Drugs Misuse Database.

7. This factsheet and data tables are available to view and download from the Departmental website, 

8. Additional Information

Further information on this report is available from:

Public Health Information & Research Branch
Department of Health
Annexe 2
Castle Buildings
Stormont
BT4 3SQ

Tel:      028 90 522501 or 028 90 522340                              

Fax:     028 90 523288

Email:  healthinequalities@health-ni.gov.uk

9. For media enquiries please contact the Department of Health Press Office on 028 9052 0575 or email pressoffice@health-ni.gov.uk. For out of hours please contact the duty press officer via pager number 07623 974383 and your call will be returned. Follow us on twitter @healthdpt.

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