Health atlas allows online search of risk by area

Posted 27/04/2014

Scientists have mapped the incidence of different diseases against environmental factors, such as air pollution. A new online map of England and Wales allows people to enter their postcode and find their community’s risk of developing 14 conditions, such as heart disease and lung cancer. The map provides population-wide health information for England and Wales. The researchers at Imperial College London pointed out that it could not be used to see an individual’s risk, but it  indicates an area’s health risk, relative to the average for England and Wales. 

Researchers at Imperial College looked at 8,800 wards in England and Wales, each with a population of 6,000 people.   They collected data from the Office for National Statistics and from cancer registries for 1985 to 2009. Data was then mapped alongside region-by-region variations in environmental factors such as air pollution, sunshine and pesticides. The data was also adjusted for age, deprivation and to take into account small numbers. Researchers said this was the first tool of its kind showing this level of detail.

Diseases and conditions included in the study were:

• Lung cancer
• Breast cancer
• Prostate cancer
• Malignant melanoma
• Bladder cancer
• Leukaemia
• Brain cancer
• Mesothelioma (a type of cancer that can start in the lungs or abdomen)
• Liver cancer
• Coronary heart disease mortality
• COPD mortality
• Kidney disease mortality
• Still birth
• Low birth weight.

Dr Anna Hansell, from the UK Small Area Health Statistics Unit, led the research. She said: “Across all of these areas there are some that have higher risks and some that have lower risks.”

Eight communities in Bridgend and Rhondda Cynon Taff, in Wales, and Leeds, Manchester and the Wirral in England have a higher health risk of the 14 conditions, Dr Hansell said. “None stood out as “doing badly for everything”, and that the statistics had not been geared up to rank the areas. Since the study adjusted for deprivation, Dr Hansell said it raised some “surprising” variations which could be explained by the increased smoking rates in the past 25 years. Meanwhile, 33 wards were identified as having a lower risk of disease, including North Norfolk, some parts of London, and the Suffolk coastline.

Prof Paul Pharoah, professor of cancer epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, said: “This atlas does not enable anyone to judge their individual absolute risk. People should definitely not use this atlas to decide where to live.”

Julie Crossley a medical injury lawyer at Ashtons Legal comments: “This is an interesting study about the impact our surroundings may have on our health and well being, and will doubtless be the basis for further research, but people need to remember that the important thing is for individuals to adopt a healthy lifestyle.”