Official report: Jersey is still a healthy place!

Thursday 24 November 2016

Despite worries about bad diet, drinking and smoking (see above) it seems Jersey is better for your health than other countries.

Overall, 80% of people in Jersey rank their health as ‘good’ or ‘very good’, compared to 70% in the UK, 58% in Poland, and 44.9% in Portugal. Jersey ranks in the top 10% in the world for life expectancy at 83.2, just behind Switzerland at 83.4 and Japan at 83.7.

The Health Profile for Jersey 2016 has been produced by the States’ Health Intelligence Unit, and covers data from 2013-2015, with direct comparisons with Guernsey, England, and the EU.

Head of Public Health Intelligence, Jill Birbeck, explained: “The Health Profile is made up of a number of ‘health ‘indicators’, each of which describes a different aspect of population health. The aim has been to include indicators that give a balance of information across a range of areas that can be compared with other regions. The Health Profile provides an information source to support and inform a wide range of strategic initiatives, including the Sustainable Primary Care project and wider cross-governmental public health work.”

Medical Officer of Health, Dr Susan Turnbull, said: “I am delighted that our latest Health Profile is ready for publication and for sharing widely. It’s even more comprehensive this year in the range of topics it covers and I hope that all my health professional, political/governmental, and media colleagues – and everyone else in the Island – finds it as useful a resource as I do. My thanks are to my Health Intelligence analyst colleagues for this exceptional tour de force.”

“The drivers of ill health such as housing standards are one of the most striking factors for people’s health chances. If someone is living in poor housing, they are more likely to smoke or to take less physical activity. This is the first joined up report which shows health patterns and risk factors, and is the first report we’ve done which goes so widely into the causes of the causes.”

Interestingly the report also comments on the thorny subject of population growth, noting that the Island’s fertility rate is dropping, and that Jersey has a low fertility rate compared to other high income countries. The island’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR - the average number of children born to a woman experiencing age-specific fertility rates) from 2013-2015 was 1.5, a drop from 1.61 from 2010-12. In England the current TFR is 1.8, while without migration, the replacement rate for our population level  is 2.1.