The number of years a person in Bradford can expect to live a healthy life has fallen in recent years.
The “Healthy Life Expectancy” (HLE) for men in the district has fallen by three years – meaning on average men will only have 57 (and six months) years of good health before beginning to suffer from health issues.
And the healthy life expectancy for women has fallen even more – by 3.2 years, and is now just 58.1 years.
A report being discussed by Bradford Council bosses this week describes the issue as a “concern”.
It says issues like the Covid-19 pandemic and higher than average smoking and alcohol consumption rates in the district are behind the fall.
On Tuesday, Bradford Council’s Executive will discuss a report into the Council Plan – and how the authority has performed against targets for issues like housing, public health and education performance.
Although some areas have improved in recent years, including reducing school absence rates and improving Key Stage 2 reading, writing and maths levels, the drop in healthy life expectancy is noticeable.
After being discussed by the Executive the report will also go to the Council’s Corporate Scrutiny Committee on Thursday.
The national healthy life expectancy is 61.5 years for men and 61.9 years for women.
For Bradford it is currently 57.5 years for men, down from 60.9 in 2017, and 58.1 years for women, down from 61.3 in 2017.
The report says: “The reduction in years of healthy life expectancy since 2017 is of concern.
“Healthy Life Expectancy has decreased three years for men and 3.2 years for women over this period.
“While post pandemic there has been a decrease nationally and regionally, the Bradford rate is considerably worse than the national rate with 1.7 years reduction for males and 1.8 years for females.
“HLE indicates the number of years people can expect to live in good health, but this is shaped by changing health trends and migration.
“Crucially, HLE helps in interpreting wider health indicators and identifying what influences local health outcomes.
“Given this context, the district’s lower healthy life expectancy for both males and females may be due to several factors after steady gains from 2013–2019, when mortality rates worsened from 2020.
“This may reflect multiple causes such as:
- Covid-19 impact: The pandemic caused excess deaths, particularly early on, reducing life expectancy. Recovery has been slow.
- Lifestyle Factors:
- Diet and obesity: Bradford has higher obesity rates and food insecurity than the national average, alongside more fast food outlets, negatively affecting health.
- Physical inactivity: A larger proportion of adults in Bradford are inactive compared to England overall, contributing to poorer health outcomes.
- Alcohol and smoking: Hospital admissions for alcohol-related conditions are high, and smoking rates though falling, remain above the national average.
- Socio-economic Factors:
- Health inequalities: Deprivation is linked to lower healthy life expectancy and higher Covid-19 mortality, especially in poorer areas.
- Access to services: Variations in access and uptake of healthcare and prevention services across communities may widen health gaps.
- Environmental factors:
- Air quality: Pollution contributes to respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Between 2020–2023, air pollution was linked to up to 5.5 per cent of deaths, alongside high rates of smoking- and heart-related mortality.”
The report goes on to say health issues due to pollution have fallen since the launch of the Clean Air Zone in late 2022.
Referring to how the Council hopes to tackle the falling healthy life expectancy, the report says: “The Council’s public health team and partners are using the Living Well Programme’s whole systems approach.
“Originally focused on tackling obesity, the programme now also targets smoking, inactivity, and poor wellbeing, using evidence-based methods to drive long-term improvement across the district.
“The programme has grown steadily, aiming to make healthy, active lifestyles easier for the district’s residents.
“Smoking reduction efforts are supported by a DHSC Stop Smoking Services grant, used to improve service access and target high-risk and low-engagement groups.
“Since April 2024, service uptake has increased each quarter.
“For alcohol-related support, Public Health has developed referral pathways with partners.
“GPs use screening tools to assess risk and refer patients to New Vision Bradford (NVB) for treatment or to the DrinkCoach app for lower-risk cases.
“Hospital patients are supported by the Alcohol Care Team and referred to NVB for follow-up.
Self-referral is also available. Working with the ICB, VCS, and community partners, we’ve embedded a health inequalities approach across services to improve access, support marginalised groups, and boost selfreported good health.”
