Skip to main content

Digital

National Statistics
Publication, Part of

Health Survey for England, 2015: Trend tables

Official statistics, National statistics, Survey, Accredited official statistics
Publication Date:
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
Country, Regions, Strategic Health Authorities
Date Range:
01 Jan 2015 to 31 Dec 2015

Summary

The Health Survey for England series was designed to monitor trends in the nation's health; estimating the proportion of people in England who have specified health conditions, and the prevalence of risk factors and behaviours associated with these conditions. The surveys provide regular information about the public's health that cannot be obtained from other sources.

Each survey in the series includes core questions, e.g. about smoking and alcohol, and core measurements such as blood pressure, height and weight, and analysis of blood and saliva samples. These trend tables focus on key health measures and health related behaviours for adults and children showing data for available years between 1993 and 2015.

All surveys have covered the adult population aged 16 and over living in private households in England. Since 1995, the surveys have included children who live in households selected for the survey; children aged 2-15 were included from 1995, and infants under two years old were added in 2001. The achieved sample in 2015 contained 8,034 adults and 5,714 children. 5,378 adults and 1,297 children had a nurse visit.

 

Highlights

Blood pressure

  • The prevalence of high blood pressure (hypertension) in 2015 was 31 per cent among men and 26 per cent among women, with little change over the last few years. The proportion of adults with untreated hypertension has decreased from 2003 to 2015 for both sexes (from 20 per cent to 15 per cent among men and from 16 per cent to 10 per cent among women).

Adult obesity

  • The prevalence of adult obesity was 27 per cent in 2015 and has fluctuated between 24 per cent and 27 per cent for men and women since 2010.

Adult smoking

  • Since 1993 there has been a decline in the proportion of men and women who were current smokers, from 28 per cent to 19 per cent in 2015 among men, and from 26 per cent to 17 per cent among women.

Children's obesity

  • The percentage of children who were obese has fluctuated between 14 per cent and 17 per cent from 2008 to 2015.

Children's smoking

  • The proportion of children aged 8 to 15 who reported that they had ever smoked a cigarette has decreased steadily from 19 per cent in 2003 to 4 per cent in 2015.

Children's experience of alcohol

  • The proportion of children aged 8 to 15 reporting ever having had a proper alcoholic drink (a whole drink, not just a sip) fell from 45 per cent in 2003 to 16 per cent in 2015.

Children's physical activity

  • Among boys, the proportion meeting physical activity recommendations fell from 28 per cent in 2008 to 21 per cent in 2012. It has remained at a lower level in 2015, at 23 per cent. Among girls there has been no statistically significant change in the proportion meeting physical activity recommendations over the period, with 19 per cent in 2008 and 20 per cent in 2015.

More data

  • Anonymised and non-disclosive HSE data sets are available for analysis via the UK Data Service link below. Users can also create their own tables from HSE data using the on-line Nesstar tabulation service on the website.

Resources

Related Links

Last edited: 17 July 2024 9:07 am