Climbing ladders: From treatment to prevention (2025)
Gateshead's health and wellbeing challenge
Our Gateshead Joint Strategic Needs Assessment helps us to understand the key issues facing people in Gateshead. Gateshead is the 53rd most deprived local authority in England, out of 296 local authorities. It shows there are currently 202,760 residents in Gateshead, and over 20% of them are aged 65 and over, continuing an ageing trend 1. A brief snapshot of data confirms that:
- Gateshead is the 53rd most deprived local authority in England, out of 296 local authorities.
- around 37,717 (19%) people in Gateshead live in one of the 10% most deprived areas of England.
- extending that range further, nearly 70,472 (36%) live in the 20% most deprived 2
- 24.9% of Reception-age children overweight or obese (England average 23.5%)
- 37.4% of Year 6 children are overweight or obese (England average 36.2%)
- 30.5% of 5-year-olds have dental decay
- there are higher rates of self-harm admissions among 10-24-year-olds than national average
This brief selection shows that there is room for improvement and that with the right action, some of the harms that arise could be prevented. This must be as important as dealing with the consequences of the harm.
Life expectancy - how long can we expect to live?
Life expectancy is how we measure how long people are likely to live, and it's not the same for everyone. Life expectancy in the UK was relatively stable from 2011-2019, but there was a sharp decrease over the years 20202021, largely due to the Covid pandemic. Globally, life expectancy has recovered beyond pre-Covid levels, but this has not been the case for the UK. Nationally, male life expectancy is 79.1 years with females at 83.1 years at birth for the period of 2021-2023. In Gateshead life expectancy is lower than the national average with male life expectancy at birth being 76.9 years and females at 81.5 years.
Two baby boys born on the same day in the same hospital in Gateshead, who live in different areas of Gateshead, can have a vast difference in how long they can expect to live. The life expectancy gap between most and least deprived areas of Gateshead is greater than 13 years for males and for females is greater than 9 years. Not only will one of these babies expect to have a shorter life, but they will spend more of that life in poorer health.
The reality is that people in more deprived areas live not only shorter lives but also spend more years in poor health compared to those in wealthier areas.
Healthy life expectancy (the time people can expect to live in good health) in Gateshead is just short of 56 and 57 years for males and females, respectively. On a human level this means people are struggling and suffering with ill health when it is avoidable. This is also 10 years before retirement age, meaning that more people are unable to work which impacts on the economic prosperity of the area.
These health gaps, or as we call them, health inequalities, are unfair and unavoidable. We don't all have the same opportunities to be healthy. They arise due to the circumstances people are born into, including things such as income, education, housing, and access to services. The chart below demonstrates the relationship between deprivation (as measured by Index of Multiple Deprivation or IMD) and life expectancy, essentially showing that people in poorer areas will have shorter lives.
Avoidable mortality
It is possible to positively impact on the figures above by identifying and acting on avoidable mortality. This term includes both preventable and treatable deaths, which can be avoided through public health interventions or timely healthcare, respectively, with treatable mortality specifically referring to deaths that could be prevented with effective medical care.
In 2023, the leading cause of preventable mortality in both England and Wales was cancer, followed by diseases of the circulatory system (heart and blood vessels) 3. Although the most common cause of avoidable mortality, deaths due to cancer have been steadily decreasing since 2001. Sadly avoidable mortality due to alcohol and drugs has been increasing since 2001.
The highest rates of avoidable mortality in 2023 were in the Northeast and Northwest of England, where almost 1 in every 333 deaths were deemed avoidable. This is in comparison to the Southeast and London, which have the lowest rates of avoidable mortality, where around 1 in every 500 were deemed avoidable 4.
Avoidable mortality is not equally distributed. Male avoidable mortality in the most deprived areas of England is 3.9 times higher than the most affluent, from 1 in every 166 deaths vs 1 in every 641 deaths. The same trend is also observed for females where avoidable mortality is 3.5 times higher in the most deprived than the most affluent, equating to 1 in every 273 deaths vs 1 in every 952 deaths.
Preventable mortality
Preventable mortality refers to causes of death that can be mainly avoided through effective public health and primary prevention interventions. We can see from the graph below that preventable mortality in the North East and Gateshead is higher than the national rates for both males and females. The rates for male preventable mortality are higher for males than females. Male preventable mortality has been increasing in Gateshead since 2012 whereas female preventable mortality over the same period has remained relatively static.
Treatable mortality
Treatable mortality refers to 'causes of death that can be mainly avoided through timely and effective healthcare interventions, including secondary prevention and treatment (that is, after the onset of disease, to reduce case fatality)'. We can see from the graph below that although treatable mortality in the North East and Gateshead is higher than the national rates for both males and females, though these rates have decreased over the last 20 years, bringing specifically the male rates closer to the national average. This is due in part to improvements in access to early diagnosis and more effective treatments.
From the graphs above, we can see that advances in treatment have reduced treatable mortality over the last 20 years but that there is much work to be done on preventable mortality.
This shows the need to shift from treatment to prevention if preventable mortality is to be addressed.
These unfair differences in health and wellbeing are avoidable to some extent if we choose to target resource and focus on them. This report will outline the importance of prevention in improving lives of those in Gateshead.