Healthy life expectancy (HLE) is a measure of how long a person would expect to live in good health based on contemporary mortality rates and prevalence of self reported good health. This is calculated from responses to a question on general health in the Annual Population Survey (APS) conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This has only been calculated since 2011 and so is a relatively new data set, with limited trend data.
National Trends
HLE for England has shown little change since 2009-11 when the data was first calculated.
- HLE for males at birth in 2009-11 was 63.0 years. It reached a peak of 63.4 between 2012 and 2018, and has slight reduced since them to 63.1 years for 2018-20.
- HLE for females at birth in 2009-11 was 64.0 years. It has fluctuated a little and was 63.9 in 2018-20.
Local trends
HLE for Plymouth population is;
- 59.3 years for women (significantly lower than England). There has been a reduction over time, though this is not statistically significant, and there is no evidence of a worsening trend.
- 64.3 years for men (similar to England). There have been changes over time but these are small; previously (up until 2015-17) Plymouth was significantly below England but we have seen relative improvement and it is now similar.
When we consider Plymouth’s HLE compared to similar areas using the CIPFA comparator areas, we see that;
- For females, despite having the highest ranking LE, the HLE is one of the worst compared to similar areas (12/16)
- For males, as well as having the highest LE of the comparators, Plymouth also has the highest HLE
This means that a female in Plymouth tends to report worse health than a similar woman (age, deprivation etc), but does not die any earlier.
Why is female HLE lower in Plymouth than we would expect?
Looking at the range of information available, there are some statistics around health and wellbeing that appear to support this HLE and some which do not, and no clear cause for this difference. For example;
- Plymouth does have a low disability-free LE for women – below the England average,
- Social isolation is highlighted as an issue for adults in Plymouth – often (but not always) women
- In terms of self reported wellbeing, Plymouth does not have low rates for satisfaction, happiness, or high rates for anxiety.
- Under 75 mortality rate considered preventable – Plymouth has higher rates than England, but is one of the lowest rates compared to similar areas.
- Health improvement
- Adult obesity is slightly worse than England but mid table compared to similar areas
- Adult smoking is much worse than England and high compared to similar areas
- Physical inactivity is similar to England and mid table compared to similar areas
- Admissions due to alcohol are similar to England and low compared to similar areas
Looking wider, there is emerging evidence that starts to point us towards considering issues such as childcare provision and the availability of employment in Plymouth. Although there may be some pointers, there is no conclusive reason as to why Plymouth female HLE is low. HLE has not been used for long enough to have evidence from places who have managed to improve HLE; there is no concrete evidence to differentiate between the risk factors for LE and for HLE. And yet, there are large variations. This is an area for further work and research.