Summary

The Health Survey for England (HSE) is part of a programme of surveys commissioned by The NHS Information Centre for health and social care (NHS IC), and carried out since 1994 by the Joint Health Surveys Unit of the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the UCL Medical School.

The study provides regular information that cannot be obtained from other sources on a range of aspects concerning the public's health and many of the factors that affect health. The series of Health Surveys for England was designed to monitor trends in the nation's health, to estimate the proportion of people in England who have specified health conditions, and to estimate the prevalence of certain risk factors and combinations of risk factors associated with these conditions. The survey is also used to monitor progress towards selected health targets.

The main focus of the HSE in 2010 was respiratory health and lung function. Additional modules of questions were also included, covering contraception and sexual health, wellbeing, kidney disease and dental health.

Key facts

Obesity

• More than a quarter of adults were obese (26 per cent of both sexes) in 2010. In total, 68 per cent of men and 58 per cent of women were overweight or obese in the year.
• The prevalence of obesity increased from 13 per cent in 1993 to 26 per cent in 2010 among men, and from 16 per cent to 26 per cent among women. While the rate of increase in obesity was slower in the second half of the period, in 2010 obesity was at its highest level since the time series began in 1993, and in men the 2010 level was also significantly higher than in the period between 2000 and 2005.

Dental Health

• 94 per cent of men and 92 per cent of women still had some of their natural teeth. Younger adults were more likely to have retained some teeth, with between 97 per cent and 99 per cent of those aged below 55 having some, depending on the age group.

Kidney disease

• 1.0 per cent of men and 1.3 per cent of women reported having doctor-diagnosed chronic kidney disease (CKD) in 2010. The prevalence of self-reported kidney disease increased with age, rising from less than 1 per cent among those aged 16-44 to 2.7 per cent in men aged 75 and over and 3.4 per cent among women in that age group.

Well-being

• For both men and women, well-being increased with household income with men and women on the highest income level scoring more than five points higher, on a scale running from 14 to 70, than those on the lowest income level according to the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale.

Respiratory conditions

• The prevalence of lifetime doctor-diagnosed asthma was 16 per cent among men and 17 per cent among women, and decreased in adults, as age increased for both sexes.

Sexual health

• Men reported a mean (average) of 9.3 female sexual partners in their life so far, while women reported a lower number, a mean of 4.7 male sexual partners.