Smoking, drinking and obesity are now causing a massive £80 million a year drain on health services in the Bradford district.
The cost of treating smoking-related conditions alone could be as high as £50m from hard-pressed NHS budgets.
Illnesses caused by excessive boozing is reckoned to be as much as £27m, while rising levels of obesity are costing nearly £6m.
And there is growing concern among public health chiefs about the mounting impact alcohol abuse, rising levels of obesity and smoking are having on the health and wealth of the district.
The annual public health report for Bradford and Airedale 2009/2010, by Dr Anita Parkin, joint director of public health for NHS Bradford and Airedale and Bradford Council, focuses on these three areas as the biggest threats to health in the district over the next decade.
Not only do these lifestyle choices impact on the health of the individual, they are critical to the NHS, the report states.
It is estimated it would be possible to save £30 billion of public expenditure nationally by 2022/2023 if individuals were fully engaged in their own health care, taking on responsibility for knowing what to do to stay healthy and aware of where to get help and then take appropriate action.
Ralph Saunders, head of public health for NHS Bradford and Airedale said: “These are the three biggest lifestyle factors that will influence people’s health in the district and the three things that people can do something about.”
The report says high levels of alcohol-related hospital admissions cost the district £2.2 million every year and the overall cost to the Bradford district of alcohol misuse is as much as £27m.
Areas with high numbers of people who smoke and drink above the recommended levels of alcohol and also smoke are parts of Keighley, the eastern edge of Bradford, the Holme Wood estate and parts of Shipley and Wrose.
Nearly a third of the adult population in the district – 146,475 people – are overweight, with 106,608 classed as obese and the report reveals the annual estimated cost of NHS adult obesity services is £5.8m. Weight loss surgery accounts for £1.1m.
Smoking causes a third of all cancer deaths, including 80 per cent of lung cancer deaths, 17 per cent of all heart disease and 80 per cent of all deaths caused by bronchitis and emphysema.
- Read the full story in the T&A
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