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National Statistics
Publication, Part of

Health Survey for England, 2014: Trend tables

Official statistics, National statistics, Survey
Publication Date:
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
Country, Regions, Strategic Health Authorities
Date Range:
01 Jan 2014 to 31 Dec 2014

Summary

The Health Survey for England series was designed to monitor trends in the nation's health, to estimate the proportion of people in England who have specified health conditions, and to estimate the prevalence of risk factors associated with these conditions. The surveys provide regular information that cannot be obtained from other sources on a range of aspects concerning the public's health. The surveys have been carried out since 1994 by the Joint Health Surveys Unit of NatCen Social Research and the Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University College London.

Each survey in the series includes core questions and measurements (such as blood pressure, height and weight, and analysis of blood and saliva samples), as well as modules of questions on topics that vary from year to year. New topics this year include hearing and mental health. The achieved sample for the 2014 survey was 8,077 adults (aged 16 and over) and 2,003 children (aged 0-15).

Highlights

Blood pressure

  • The prevalence of hypertension in 2014 was 32 per cent among men and 27 per cent among women with little change over the last few years.
  • Between 2003 and 2014, the proportion of the population with controlled hypertension increased from 5 per cent to 10 per cent among men, and from 6 per cent to 10 per cent among women. The proportion of adults with untreated hypertension decreased from 2003 to 2014 for both sexes (20 per cent to 17 per cent among men and 16 percent to 11 percent among women).

Adult obesity

  • The proportion of adults with a normal1 Body Mass Index (BMI) decreased between 1993 and 2014, from 41 per cent to 33 per cent among men and from 49 per cent to 40 per cent among women. Among both men and women there has been little change in the proportion that was overweight2 over this period, (41 per cent of men and 31 per cent of women in 2014).
  • Between 1993 and 2014, there was an increase in the proportion of adults that were obese3; from 13 per cent to 24 per cent among men and from 16 per cent to 27 per cent among women. The prevalence of obesity increased steeply between 1993 and 2000 and then more slowly. It has been between 24 per cent and 27 per cent for both sexes since 2010.

Diabetes

  • The prevalence of doctor-diagnosed diabetes increased between 1994 and 2014 from 2.9 per cent to 7.1 per cent among men and from 1.9 per cent to 5.3 per cent among women.

Adult smoking

  • There has been a steady decline in the proportion of women who were current smokers from 24 per cent in 2003 to 17 per cent in 2014. The proportion of men who were current smokers fell from 27 per cent in 2003 to 21 per cent in 2014.

Adult alcohol consumption

  • Current government guidelines advise that daily drinking should not regularly exceed 4 units for men and 3 units for women. The proportion of men consuming more than 4 units on their heaviest day's drinking in the last week was 37 per cent in 2014 and lower than in 2006 (41 per cent). The proportion of women consuming more than 3 units on their heaviest day's drinking last week fell from 33 per cent in 2006 to 25 per cent in 2014.

Children's fruit and vegetable consumption

  • The proportion of children aged 5-15 eating 5 or more portions of fruit and vegetable increased from 16% in 2013 to 23% in 2014. The mean number of portions consumed in 2014 was 3.5.

More data

  • Anonymised and non-disclosive HSE data sets are available for analysis via the UK Data Service link below. Users can also create their own tables from HSE data using the on-line Nesstar tabulation service on the website.

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Footnotes

  1. Normal is defined as a BMI (kg/ m2) from 18.5 to less than 25.

  2. Overweight is defined as a BMI (kg/ m2) from 25 to less than 30.

  3. Obese is defined as a BMI (kg/m2) of 30 or more.

Resources

Related Links

Last edited: 25 May 2018 8:49 pm