Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

7.5 Within this overall context – and focusing on those elements which relate most directly to health –
we can cite some headline statistics for the East of England: 113
• In 2000, 1.1% of babies born in the East of England weighed less than 1500g and 6.8% weighed
less than 2500g. At a local authority district level, infant mortality rates were highest during
the late 1990s in Cambridge, Luton, Fenland, Norwich and Peterborough 114
• Some 200,000 children are estimated to be living in poverty in the East of England. Moreover,
at the time of the 2001 census, over 150,000 dependent children within the Region lived
in households in which no adult was working
• Issues relating to overweight and obese children have risen steadily over the recent past:
in the East of England, 16% of boys and 21% of girls are overweight
• Although teenage conception rates are low in the East of England relative to the national
average, UK figures are high relative to much of Western Europe. 115 Within the Region,
almost half of under-18 conceptions occur in the most deprived 20% of wards. A national
report by the Social Exclusion Unit suggested that the high incidence of teenage pregnancy
in deprived areas is explicable in terms of young people seeing no reason not to get pregnant
(in the context of low aspirations); lack of knowledge about contraception; and mixed messages
from the media and from institutions (such as schools) 116
• Some 76% of smokers in the East of England report that they started smoking between the
ages of 11 and 18. In 2000, 34% of 15-year old girls and 25% of boys were found to be
regular smokers
• In the East of England, the proportion of young men, aged 16-24 years, consuming more than
28 units of alcohol per week increased by 8% between 1993 and 2002. For young women aged
16-24 years, there was a 10% increase in those consuming more than 21 units of alcohol per
week over this time. 117
7.6 With regard to the long-term health prospects of the East of England, the experiences of the Region’s
children and young people are critical. Moreover, there are strong inter-generational elements: as the
Regional Social Strategy explains, ‘teenage mothers are less likely to finish their education, less likely
to find a good job and more likely to end up as single parents bringing up their children in poverty.
The children run a much greater risk of poor health and have a much higher chance of becoming
teenage mothers themselves’. Enhancing the health of children and young people within the East of
England is essential if this cycle of deprivation is to be broken, if health inequalities are to be reduced,
and if the health of the Region’s population is to be improved.
113 Unless otherwise stated, data are taken from a paper on Child Health, prepared by ERPHO as an input into the development
of the Regional Health Strategy.
114 East in Focus: East of England Health Profile 2001 ERPHO.
115 See http://www.nhsinherts.nhs.uk
116 Social Exclusion Unit report on Teenage Pregnancy, 1999 – cm4342.
117 Alcohol Use in the East of England (draft), October 2005, ERPHO.
A Regional Health Strategy for the East of England 85