Why England could get knocked out in the quarter finals

Posted by Clare Bambra, Fuse Associate Director & Professor of Public Health Geography, Durham University

If Euro 2016 was based on how healthy each nation is, there would be some surprising results. England would get knocked out in the quarter finals of Euro 2016 if the tournament was based on how healthy each nation is. Based on health statistics, Switzerland would walk away as European Champions for the first time in the competition’s history, narrowly beating Iceland on penalties in the final. 

Click here to see more Country Health Fact Files‌

Our analysis of differences in life expectancy for men in the 24 countries taking part in the forthcoming football tournament shows huge health divides across Europe and highlights the links between where you live and how long you live.

The European Health Championship is an accessible way to shed light on these stark differences. It scores each nation’s football team based on the country’s male life expectancy at birth for 2013. From these scores, the winners and losers of each group are decided as well as the results of the games in the knock out stages.

England, with a male life expectancy of 79 years, would be winners of their group by beating Russia (63 years), Slovakia (72 years) and Wales (78 years). England would then beat Czech Republic (75 years) in the round of 16 knockout stage but would lose to Iceland (81 years) in the quarter-finals. Likewise, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a male life expectancy of 78 years each, would be beaten by Austria and France (79 years each) in the round of 16 knockout stages. Switzerland and Iceland both with male life expectancy of 81 years meet in the final, with Switzerland winning on penalties because female life expectancy there is 85 years compared to 84 years in Iceland.

The European Health Championship also reveals a clear east-west gap with worse health in the countries of Eastern Europe compared to those in the West. For example, in the host country France (the runners-up in group A), baby boys are expected to live up to 79 years old whilst in Ukraine, who finish bottom of group C, it is just 66 and in Russia (bottom of group B) it is a mere 63 years. Spain and Italy also fare well with men expected to live up to 80 in those countries.

But what explains these differences in health across European countries? Why do some countries perform so much better in health terms than others? Geographical research suggests that the answer is twofold: the health of places is determined by the population composition (who lives here) and the environmental context (where you live).

Who lives here? The demographic, health behaviours and socio-economic profile of the people within a place influences its health outcomes. Generally speaking, health deteriorates with age, women live longer than men, and health status also varies by ethnicity. Levels of smoking, alcohol, physical activity, diet, and drugs – all influence the health of populations significantly. Indeed, research has strongly linked Russia’s comparatively low life expectancy amongst men with the high levels of alcohol consumption in the country particularly since the collapse of communism. The socio-economic status – or social class in “old money” – of people living in a country also matters as those with higher occupational status (e.g. professionals such as teachers or lawyers) have better health outcomes than non-professional workers (e.g. manual workers). So differences in the characteristics of people in the countries of Europe will contribute to these country level differences in life expectancy.

However, research also shows that where you live matters. The economic environment of a country, such as poverty rates, unemployment rates, or wage levels can influence health. Countries with lower poverty rates, for example Switzerland or Iceland, do better than countries with higher poverty rates such as England. The social environment, including the services provided within a country to support people in their daily lives such as child care or health care and welfare, can also impact on population level health. The physical environment is also important determinant with research suggesting that proximity to waste facilities and brownfield or contaminated land, as well as levels of air pollution can negatively affect health. So countries with worse economic, social or physical environments will have worse health outcomes.

Infographics

• ‌European Health Championship – final round of 16 to final‌
• Group results A-F‌
• Country health fact files‌

The underlying research to the European Health Championship and these links between health and place are explored further in Professor Bambra’s forthcoming book Health Divides: where you live can kill you. Reducing health inequalities between and within the countries of Europe is also the focus of HiNEWS, an international project led by the Department of Geography at Durham University. It is funded by the New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Co-operation in Europe (NORFACE) which is a partnership of European research councils including the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Dementia: not drowning but waving

Posted by Mark Parkinson, Post Graduate Student at Northumbria University

It's Dementia Awareness Week in England as part of Alzheimer’s Society’s ongoing campaign to raise public awareness of this disease. It also affords us the opportunity to take stock of just how far we have progressed since the dark days of the 1980s. Back then a mood of extreme pessimism surrounded dementia amid stark warnings that this ‘rising tide’ represented an unstoppable tsunami-like force that would engulf the UK. Attempts to avert the coming disaster were seen as futile and hopeless, akin to King Canute holding back the sea. The prevailing mood of despondency was ‘justified’ by nine fallacies of dementia emanating from a general lack of knowledge and understanding about dementia.


The Great Wave off Kanagawa

• Fallacy No.1: Dementia was commonly perceived to be part of ‘normal ageing’. Dementia is now widely acknowledged as a clinical condition characterised by neurobiological abnormalities that distinguish it from so-called ‘normal’ ageing. The public perception of dementia as a disease that is separate from ‘normal’ ageing is increasing in the UK but campaigns such as Dementia Awareness Week are still necessary.
• Fallacy No.2: Dementia is unavoidable. Protective factors that help guard against vascular dementia in particular include our lifestyle choices, including smoking cessation, regular exercise, adherence to a healthy diet and avoiding becoming obese. The identification of potential triggers for dementia paves the way for future interventions that might mitigate the onset of dementia entirely, including monitoring for catalysts for dementia such as cardio-vascular disease, obesity, diabetes and depression. Intervention programs targeting at-risk groups have demonstrated success in preventing dementia, e.g. FINGER (a two-year programme that focuses on diet, exercise, cognitive retraining and monitoring and treating vascular risk). Latest research also highlights further candidate triggers for dementia such as interleukin 33 (IL-33) protein deficiency which may be remedied via injections to prevent dementia.
• Fallacy No.3: Dementia is irreversible. Although this remains the case for now, the development of treatments such as Galantamine have been shown to at least moderate the effects of dementia.
• Fallacy No.4: Dementia is untreatable. The search for a cure for dementia remains ongoing and we have moved into an era where the potential discovery of better treatments and an eventual cure has never been so high. For now though prevention via identification of key triggers remains the main option in the absence of a cure.
• Fallacy No.5: Dementia is a diagnosis to mortality within seven years. Dementia related diseases such as Alzheimer’s now have a typical duration of 10 or more years and evidence suggests that, in general, people with dementia are living longer. The challenge continues to be ensuring they live as well as possible.
• Fallacy No.6: Dementia is too varied and unpredictable to treat. Greater understanding of the different sub-types of dementia, their different causes and symptoms, combined with improved ability to detect them makes treatment for dementia a more viable possibility.
• Fallacy No.7: Dementia is only detected when it is already too late to act. This remains a key issue; however, improved diagnostic tests and screening have improved early detection of the disease.
• Fallacy No.8: Dementia is too expensive to treat. Recent interventions such as Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) can be delivered to people living with dementia via just 14 hourly sessions. CST has demonstrated equivalent but more sustained effects compared to relatively expensive drug treatments.
• Fallacy No.9: The number of those with dementia will increase exponentially in the future. Recent comparisons between CFAS1 (Cognitive Function and Ageing Studies) (1991) and CFAS2 (2015) conducted by Cambridge University reveal that dementia prevalence in the UK has actually declined by 22 per cent over this 24 year period. Those born in the latter part of the 20th century exhibit a lower risk factor for dementia than those born earlier. The tsunami warnings of the 1980s have been proven wrong.

Importantly, all this does not signal a time to relax. The need to raise awareness of dementia and the challenges associated with it remains as urgent as ever. In the 1980s a sense of urgency towards tackling dementia provided a much needed catalyst for change. Today a key difference is that this urgency is no longer fuelled by impotent fear but by renewed hope and optimism that galvanises fresh impetus to all our endeavours to beat the disease.

With acknowledgement to the inspired presentation on 25 April, 2016 at the first Gateshead Dementia Conference by Dr.Daniel Collerton (Clinical Psychologist associated with dementia care at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead).

The 'Wow' moments

Posted by Rosemary Rushmer, Professor of Knowledge Exchange in Public Health, and Dr Peter van der Graaf, AskFuse Research Manager, Fuse and Teesside University

From the 26-28 April, Fuse hosted the Third International Conference on Knowledge Exchange in Public Health in Newcastle-Gateshead. The conference explored “Evidence to Impact in Public Health" in partnership with Tranzo (Dutch Scientific Center for Care and Welfare) and the World Health Organization (WHO), Regional Office for Europe. More than 160 participants from five continents descended upon the Quayside to discuss the latest research and evidence on knowledge exchange practices through papers, posters, interactive workshops and soapbox sessions – and continued these deliberations during the conference reception and dinner, organised walks and yoga sessions.

How do you sum up a conference like this? We are used to filling in ‘happy sheets’ when we attend conferences, giving our scores on the speakers, the accommodation, and if the food was hot…but what about the ‘Wow!’ moments that participants share with each other in the informal spaces?

Below are a few of those hidden moments:

(Day 1: Keynote speaker Professor Bev Holmes, Vice-President, Research
& Impact at the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, Vancouver)

‘Wow, she has a lovely way of asking really difficult questions in such a nice, unthreatening way…’

(Day 2: Keynote speaker Professor Hans Van Oers,
Professor in Public Health, Tranzo, Tilburg University)

‘Wow, how did they manage to carry out that research against all that opposition and yet laugh about it now… you can have a good time, be funny, and serious as well…’

(Day 1: Keynote speaker Professor Kieran Walshe, Professor of
 Health Policy & Management, Manchester Business School)

‘Hmm, we can learn about innovation in public health from the car industry and Amazon…’

‘(Sigh) Is that how much we spend on pharmaceutical research and how little we spend on working together to get evidence used. That needs to change…’

(Day 2: Keynote speaker Claudia Stein, Director of the Division of Information,
 Evidence, Research & Innovation, World Health Organisation (WHO))

‘Wow’ it’s that last presentation of the conference and the room is still full.’

(Day 2: Professor Peter Kelly, Director of Public Health
& Adult Social Services, Stockton Borough Council)

‘Goodness! Your Directors of Public Health (DsPH) have taken time out to chair sessions and present…’ (When I fed this back to one DsPH, to show the planning committee’s appreciation of their participation, he was surprised at the delegates surprise… ‘What on earth happens elsewhere…?’ he said.






Maybe we, in Fuse, do have a ‘special relationship’ with our policy and practice partner that makes Knowledge Exchange in public health easier in the North East of England. We, the organising committee, were wowed by the enthusiasm and engagement of all participants during the conference. Discussions were lively with active and positive contributions from not only researchers but in particular public health practitioners and policy makers. Their engagement in the conference is the real evidence of how far we have come with knowledge exchange in the North East and the impact we are having together on public health and local wellbeing, and this is being noticed internationally.

Here's to the next conference!

Visit the Fuse website to find out more about the conference: www.fuse.ac.uk

You are now reading the award winning Fuse blog

Posted by Mark Welford and Emma Dorée, Fuse Communications team, Teesside University

You may recall that in January we used this platform to make a shameless plea inviting readers to vote for the Fuse blog in the UK Blog Awards and a month later you may have heard the news that we had been shortlisted in the categories of Education, and Health and Social Care.

Well… (drum roll) …. We only went and won!  That’s right, you are now reading an award winning blog – fancy contributing?!

Last Friday (29 April), we took the Fuse blog monster on a road trip to the big smoke, that there London, where the streets are paved with, well… paving stones to attend the awards ceremony, in eager anticipation.

The awards ceremony was held at the swanky Park Plaza Hotel in Westminster, London and it is safe to say that it more than exceeded our expectations.  The invitation advised that we ‘dress to impress’ but some of the attire on show would have made Lady Gaga and James Bond feel underdressed.

We were welcomed to the event, themed on Roald Dahl’s The BFG with free drinks and canapes (not to mention all the frogsquinkers, buzzwangles, and bugwhiffles we could handle), while we networked with other bloggers and even the Big Friendly Giant himself. The most exciting part however was still to come: the awards ceremony itself.

Tech Reporter Kate Russell (you might know her from BBC show Click) hosted the evening and provided a great commentary, making every blogger there feel very welcome.  Her quirky comments worked to relax the atmosphere and ease frayed nerves.

Each category had two blogs that were highly commended by the judges, followed by an overall winner.  As the Education category came up on screen, we watched in anticipation - the Fuse Blog wasn't announced as Highly Commended - oh well there was still the other category - but then to our surprise as the overall winner of the category!

Having let out a little scream of excitement (and possibly the odd expletive), we went up onto the stage to collect our trophy – a rather lethal looking glass affair - and have our photograph taken with Kate and the judges. It was a surreal moment and very much unexpected with a dash of relief as there were no speeches.

Obligatory award selfie

Once the presentations were over, we were invited to have our photograph taken with the other winners. After which it was time to celebrate properly with more free prosecco (consumed in moderation), posh food and of course a little bit of disco dancing.

This was a great event to be a part of and the venue made it feel even more special and exciting. As the night drew to a close and we collected our certificate and goody bags (with complementary BFG themed dream jars), the fact that we had actually come away as winners had not yet sunk in - it still hasn't now to be honest!

Dream jars - also good for storing ginger biscuits

  
 This is a fantastic achievement for Fuse, as more than two thousands blogs were submitted. There were more than seventy eight thousand votes in total and it is great to think that the Fuse Blog has such a loyal following and a lot of support.

A special thank you must go to Jean Adams who founded the blog in 2011 and to everyone who has contributed over the years.  The posts have sparked great discussion and helped our readers learn what it is really like to work in public health.  Our many writers make the Fuse blog what it is.

We really hope that you will continue to enjoy reading our posts and don’t forget, if you would like to contribute to the Fuse Blog then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

If you would like to discuss a potential blog post or have something already written then please get in touch with Emma Dorée (E.Doree@tees.ac.uk).