joint strategic needs assessment foundation profile - JSNA

Interative Hull Atlas: www.hullpublichealth.org/Pages/hull_atlas.htm More information: www.jsnaonline.org and www.hullpublichealth.org
8.7 Diet
8.7.1 Collecting Information in Diet
It is difficult to collect and interpret information on diet owing to the wide range of foods
which can be eaten in varying quantities. In addition, there are often „healthy‟ and
„unhealthy‟ versions of the same type of foods and different cooking methods. For
simplicity, the frequency of eating the recommended five daily portions of fruit and
vegetables has been used as indicative of diet. People were also asked to state if they
felt they had a healthy diet or not, and these responses will also be presented. The
most recently completed survey was the Prevalence Survey undertaken during 2009,
and the people were asked about 5-A-DAY and whether they felt they ate a healthy diet,
but more detailed information was not collected as the questionnaire was relatively
short. More information on diet such as the frequency of eating take-away food and
ready-meals was collected within the 2007 Health and Lifestyle Survey, and the 2008-09
Young People Health and Lifestyle Survey. The Social Capital Surveys 2004 and 2009
also collected some information on diet. Reports on these surveys together with more
detailed information from the young people‟s survey, and information at ward level in the
76 page Public Health Profiles for Hull and within the Hull Atlas are all available at
www.hullpublichealth.org.
8.7.2 Poor Diet as a Risk Factor
Diet has been linked to several types of cancer including cancer of the bowel, stomach,
breast, lung, prostate, pancreas, oesophagus and bladder (Cancer Research UK 2009).
A fatty salty diet is also a risk factor for cardiovascular disease as fatty build-ups within
the arteries can cause heart attacks, stroke and other cardiovascular events and salt
increases the risk of hypertension which is also a risk factor for cardiovascular disease
(BBC 2009; NHS Choices 2009).
8.7.3 Healthy Diet
As part of the Health and Lifestyle Survey 2007, the Prevalence Survey 2009 and the
Young People Health and Lifestyle Survey 2008-09, survey responders were asked if
they felt they had a healthy diet. The responses were “yes”, “no”, “don‟t know if what a
healthy diet is” and “don‟t know if I have a healthy diet”. Survey responders in the
Health and Lifestyle Survey 2007 were also asked if they felt had eaten healthier in the
last year.
Joint Strategic Needs Assessment Foundation Profile – Hull Health Profile: Release 3. March 2011. 326