PEOPLE in Wales are living longer – but quality of life is being hit by the impact of lifestyle choices surrounding the likes of smoking and drinking to excess.

And Wales’ chief medical officer Dr Tony Jewell warned that arguments that such behaviour is culturally ingrained are “no excuse”

and that people are capable of making their own decisions on matters that influence their health.

In his fifth annual report, Dr Jewell welcomes improvements in life expectancy, reductions in premature death rates for cancer and respiratory disease, and decreases in the numbers of young people taking up smoking and drinking.

But he warns that the latter issues still exert a massive influence on health in Wales, contributing to continuing and widening health inequalities between areas.

Describing such inequalities as “pernicious”

he said differences in health status must be narrowed.

“Health gain in Wales needs to be fair,” he said.

Such inequalities have traditionally been very stark between parts of Gwent, notably Blaenau Gwent – which carries one of Wales’ heaviest burdens of poor health – and Monmouthshire, with one of the lightest.

Most obviously this manifests itself in all-cause death rates.

Blaenau Gwent has the second highest rate for men and the highest for women out of 22 local authority areas, and Monmouthshire has the third lowest for men and women.

Similarly life expectancy, though increasing across the board, is significantly above average in Monmouthshire and significantly below average in Blaenau Gwent, for both sexes.


Lifestyle depends on where you live

BASED on the Welsh Health Survey, both Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire – along with Torfaen – report below average rates of alcohol consumption above daily guidelines, with Caerphilly and Newport slightly above.

Monmouthshire again tops the list in Gwent for people doing sufficient daily physical activity, and eating the right amount of fruit and vegetables, with all other parts of Gwent coming in below the recommended rates.

Blaenau Gwent has the highest rate of adult smokers in Wales, with Torfaen and Newport above the Wales average, and Monmouthshire the lowest.

Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly and Newport report above average rates of overweight and obesity, and below average rates of mental and physical wellbeing.