Official Statistics

Health Inequalities Dashboard: statistical commentary, May 2019

Published 22 May 2019

Main findings

This update shows:

• for both males and females, the gap in life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas of England has significantly widened between the years 2011 to 2013 and 2015 to 2017 to 9.4 years for males and 7.4 years for females
• the gap in healthy life expectancy was around 19 years in 2015 to 2017 for both sexes and this has not changed since year 2011 to 2013
• since the baseline period, inequalities in the wider determinants of health have narrowed within England for several indicators, including children living in low income families, young people not in employment, education or training, and the employment gap between those with a long-term health condition and the overall employment rate
• within England, inequality has narrowed for alcohol-related hospital admissions and self-reported wellbeing - however, babies in the most deprived areas are twice as likely as those in the least deprived to be born with low birth weight and this inequality has not changed since the baseline
• there are wide inequalities in the prevalence of overweight children by deprivation and ethnicity and these have widened, or remained the same, since the baseline
• although premature mortality rates from cancer and cardiovascular disease have decreased since the baseline in England, the relative inequality gap has widened, with rates in the most deprived areas twice as high for cancer and 4 times higher for cardiovascular disease than the least deprived areas
• inequalities in infant mortality and suicide have not changed since the baseline

Background

The Health Inequalities Dashboard provides information to monitor progress on reducing inequalities within England. It presents measures of inequality for 18 indicators, each drawn from the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF).

The dashboard measures trends in each indicator since a baseline period, with longer term data provided where these are available. Inequalities are considered across a range of dimensions, including deprivation, ethnic group, sexual orientation and employment status.

The Health Inequalities Dashboard was first made publicly available in Excel format as part of the Health Equity Report in July 2017. In September 2018, it was first published as an interactive web tool (using R shiny software) as part of the Health Profile for England. The following changes have been made to the Health Inequalities Dashboard since the previous update in September 2018:

• the tool has been renamed ‘Health Inequalities Dashboard’
• the grouping of the indicators into domains has been revised for consistency with the PHOF
• all of the 18 indicators have been updated with latest inequality data at England level
• region and local authority level data have been added for 17 of the 18 indicators (all indicators except proportion of 5 year old children with dental decay)
• inequality data at region and local authority level have been added for 4 of the 18 indicators

It is planned that more local level inequality data will be added to the tool over time.

View the Health Inequalities Dashboard.

Responsible statistician, product lead: Laura Powell

For queries relating to this document, please contact: profilefeedback@phe.gov.uk.