Where people live in Buckinghamshire could determine whether they enjoy more than a decade of extra healthy life, a new public health report has revealed.
The Director of Public Health's Annual Report highlights stark health inequalities across the county, showing residents in some of Buckinghamshire's most deprived communities are likely to spend significantly fewer years in good health than those living in more affluent areas.
The report uses two fictional Buckinghamshire residents to illustrate how factors including housing, education, employment, transport, access to healthy food and community connections can influence people's health throughout their lives.
Amir, a father living in Princes Risborough, is presented as someone benefiting from many of the "building blocks of health". He has secure work, good housing, access to green spaces and strong community ties. The report says these factors contribute to a healthy life expectancy around 8.3 years higher than for a man living in one of Buckinghamshire's Opportunity Bucks areas.
According to the report, men in better-off parts of Buckinghamshire can expect to live to around 84 years old, spending 73.6 of those years in good health.
Meanwhile Lisa, a mother living in High Wycombe, faces a different set of circumstances. The report describes her family living in a damp and poorly insulated flat while dealing with financial pressures and having fewer opportunities to access healthy food, exercise and social activities.
The impact of those challenges is reflected in the figures. Women in less affluent parts of Buckinghamshire have a life expectancy of 80.1 years compared with 85.5 years in the most affluent communities. The difference in healthy life expectancy is even greater, at around 11.6 years.
Public health leaders say the findings demonstrate that health is shaped by far more than access to healthcare, with everyday factors such as income, education, housing quality, transport and social connections all playing a role.
The report also identifies loneliness and social isolation as significant risks to health. It states that feeling lonely increases the risk of dying early by around 16 per cent, while social isolation or living alone increases that risk by between 29 and 32 per cent.
More than a quarter of Buckinghamshire residents live alone, while 4.2 per cent report feeling lonely often or always. About a third of residents live in rural areas where limited transport links, digital access and community facilities can make maintaining social connections more difficult.
The report calls for action across a range of areas including housing, employment, transport, food provision and community support to help close the gap between Buckinghamshire's healthiest and least healthy neighbourhoods.
The findings will be discussed by Buckinghamshire's Health and Wellbeing Board when it meets at The Oculus in Aylesbury on September 3.
Board members are due to consider how organisations across the county can work together to deliver the report's recommendations.
The wider report also highlights a number of challenges in High Wycombe. Abbey ward has more than five times the county average density of fast-food outlets, with 339.8 outlets per 100,000 people compared with a Buckinghamshire average of 61.3.
The report also describes an unnamed High Wycombe secondary school where pupils pass more than 10 fast-food outlets on the journey home. It states that 28 per cent of pupils in the area buy fast food on the way home at least once a week, compared with a Buckinghamshire average of eight per cent.
High Wycombe was also identified as having the second-highest risk of food insecurity in the county, with an estimated 17.3 per cent of residents affected compared with a Buckinghamshire average of 13.2 per cent.
Buckinghamshire Council's cabinet approved the annual public health report in July. The September meeting will focus on how organisations including the council, NHS and other partners will respond to its findings and recommendations.
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