Reducing stress, smoking, obesity and alcohol intake are our targets

Head of health intelligence Jenny Cataroche said that prevention efforts would be focused by data collected in the latest edition of its wellbeing survey, which was also published yesterday.

‘The survey has given us really important information about the health and wellbeing of our population,’ she said.

‘That shows us where we need to target some of our efforts when we look at how we can support islanders.

‘There were five groups of individuals who showed poorer health, they were 16- to 24-year- olds, women, people living in affordable housing, people on lower incomes, and households with two or more people under 16.’

She said that one good news story from the data was that smoking prevalence was down to 9% from 13% in 2018.

‘But if you look at that data in more detail, we see that in females aged 16 to 24 the smoking rate is 16.5%. It’s that nuance, trying to look at the survey, look at the groups, and find out where we can use local evidence to target local services.’

Ms Cataroche said the results on alcohol use were ‘a bit of a mixed bag’.

‘There are some improvements, the proportion of people who are actually abstaining from alcohol completely has increased a little bit,’ she said.

‘Binge drinking has also declined – the threshold we use is five drinks in any one drinking episode, but there’s a number of ways to look at alcohol use, and we know that our population is experiencing harm from alcohol in other areas.’

The survey said that a third of islanders have been coping with a large amount of stress over the last year.

Ms Cataroche said the top factor identified was stress from work, followed by health concerns of family and friends.

‘The second factor will be addressed by those prevention activities with factors such as smoking and obesity,’ she said.

‘But with the workplace stress, that’s about, raising awareness, and working with employers to see what can be done in terms of flexibility, work, life, balance, and discrimination.

‘These are all factors that could be addressed, and I think, could potentially improve people’s working experience.’

Director of Public Health Dr Nicola Brink said that an increase in active travel was an area that Public Health could be justifiably proud of that would have health benefits across the board.

Over 70% of respondents to the survey had walked for transport in the last 12 months, and almost 40% had cycled to destinations.

‘Those percentages are something in the order of 20% higher than English statistics,’ said Dr Brink.

‘It’s a prime example of where you see everyone across the States working to achieve a good outcome.

‘There’s definitely more to do, but we’ve got a really good foundation to build on.’

She added that work across the States and the wider island community, means that public health goals could be achieved in the next five to 10 years.

‘The case for prevention has never been stronger – we need to look further than the next year or two and take bold steps to shape the health and wellbeing of islanders in decades to come.

‘Failing to do so will mean that we leave a larger burden of ill-health for future generations – and this is neither fair, nor ethical.’

n Turn to pages p16 and p17 for the first of two features looking at the Guernsey and Alderney Wellbeing Survey 2023.