Health inequalities are differences in health between people or groups of people that may be considered unfair. Health inequalities exist across a range of dimensions or characteristics, including personal characteristics, lifestyle factors, social networks, living and working conditions, and socio-economic and environmental conditions.
By tackling health inequalities we can help ensure everyone has the same opportunities to lead a healthy life, regardless of who they are or where they live. However, despite efforts to address inequalities in health, stark health inequalities remain. Nationally, there has been little change in: the gap in male life expectancy; male and female healthy life expectancy and premature cancer mortality. Life expectancy for females has actually widened between those living in the most and least deprived areas.
A key determinant of health is where people live, with poorer health outcomes being closely related to higher levels of deprivation. Some ethnic groups are far more likely to live in more deprived areas than others, resulting in further inequalities for some groups. Similarly, those who are considered vulnerable may also experience greater health inequalities.
Health Inequalities Audit report 2019
It is widely known that some groups within Leeds have a poorer experience of accessing healthcare services.
Working with Public Health colleagues, we have produced a Health Inequalities Audit report which reviews the inequalities in patient experience of accessing general practice services through local evidence and outlines the findings in relation to barriers to enabling local populations to have the best possible access to primary care services in Leeds.
Health Inequalities Audit 2019 – Access to General Practice
In order to view PDF documents you will need Adobe PDF ReaderHealth Inequalities Framework
To support our ambition ‘Leeds will be a healthy and caring city for people of all ages where people who are the poorest improve their health the fastest’. We have created a framework to help us achieve this.
Building Healthy Communities video
This short video describes our ambition to make Leeds a healthy and caring city for all ages.