Eating blueberries every day improves heart health

Eating 150g of blueberries daily reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease by up to 15% according to new research led by the University of East Anglia | The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition | story via ScienceDaily

New findings published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition show that eating 150g of blueberries daily reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease by up to 15 per cent.

Researchers looked at the benefits of eating 150 gram portions (one cup) compared to 75 gram portions. The participants consumed the blueberries in freeze-dried form and a placebo group was given a purple-coloured alternative made of artificial colours and flavourings. They found that eating one cup of blueberries per day resulted in sustained improvements in vascular function and arterial stiffness – making enough of a difference to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by between 12 and 15 per cent.

The research team from the University of East Anglia’s Department of Nutrition and Preventive Medicine say that blueberries and other berries should be included in dietary strategies to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease – particularly among at risk groups.

Full story at ScienceDaily

Full research article: Curtis, P. J. et al. |Blueberries improve biomarkers of cardiometabolic function in participants with metabolic syndrome—results from a 6-month, double-blind, randomized controlled trial | The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 109, Issue 6, June 2019, Pages 1535–1545

 

 

BMJ research: Children from disadvantaged backgrounds and certain ethnic minorities do less vigorous physical activity

University of Cambridge | May 2019 |Children from disadvantaged backgrounds and certain ethnic minorities do less vigorous physical activity 

Researchers from the University of Cambridge are the first to investigate socio-economic and ethnicity-related differences in children’s vigorous intensity physical activity behaviour.  The team studied the health of more than 5000 children using data from the Millennium Cohort Study -a longitudinal study that followed children born between September 2000 and January 2002-child participants were given accelerometers as their levels of physical activity were monitored for three days.

One of the study’s findings is that children whose mothers are highly educated are more likely to participate in the more physical activity  her child was likely to have, equally the experts also observed that children spent more time in vigorous intensity activity incrementally with increasing household income.

Other findings suggest White British children perform on average more than three minutes more daily vigorous physical activity in comparison to children from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds. Children from ‘other ethnic groups’ also accumulated 2.2 minutes fewer daily vigorous intensity activity overall.

The researchers emphasise there could be a number of reasons that might explain the differences, including access to or the cost of participating in sports activities, and a parent working longer, inconsistent work hours within a low-income job. There may also be differences in home and family support for physical activity between ethnic groups.

“Children from different backgrounds can face a number of barriers preventing them from participating in sports or other types of vigorous physical activity,” adds Dr Jean Adams, one of the study’s authors: “We need to find more ways to provide opportunities for all children to get involved in vigorous activity.” (Source: University of Cambridge)

Full press release from the University of Cambridge

Abstract

 Objective: To investigate if daily vigorous physical activity, adjusted for minutes of moderate physical activity performed, differs by socio-economic position or ethnicity in a large sample of UK children with objectively measured physical activity.

Design: Nationally representative prospective cohort study.

Setting: UK children born between 2000 and 2002.

Participants: 5172 7-8-year-old children with valid accelerometer data for more than or equal to 10 h on more than or equal to 3 days, including one weekend day.

Main outcome measures: Time spent in vigorous physical activity (VPA) (more than 3841 counts per minute).

Explanatory measures: Maternal education, annual household OECD equivalised income, ethnicity.

Results: Multivariable linear regression models fitted to explore differences in average daily minutes of VPA (adjusted for moderate physical activity (MPA), mean accelerometer wear time, season of measurement, age and sex), revealed significantly higher amounts of VPA accumulated as a child’s socioeconomic position increased. Additionally, children from certain minority ethnicities  accrued less daily VPA compared with their white British counterparts.

Conclusions: The socioeconomic and ethnic patterning of vigorous activity observed in this study mirrors parallel inequalities in rates of childhood obesity. Given the stronger association of vigorous activity (VPA) with adiposity than of moderate activity (MPA), intensity specific differences may be contributing to widening inequalities in obesity. Accordingly, these findings suggest that the current global focus on overall MVPA may mask important behavioural inequalities.

Read the full article in The BMJ 

Preventable deaths and deprivation

These charts show that the risk of preventable deaths is at least three times higher for people living in the most deprived local areas compared to those living in the least deprived | The Health Foundation

In May 2019 the Office for National Statistics published the latest statistics related to avoidable mortality and socioeconomic inequalities. This explores deaths that are considered avoidable in the presence of timely and effective health care (amendable mortality) or public health interventions (preventable mortality).

The data show that the risk of preventable deaths is at least three times higher for people living in the most deprived 10% of local areas compared to the least deprived 10%.

While the preventable mortality rate has fallen since 2001, its fallen at a faster rate for people living in the least deprived local areas. Between 2001 and 2017 it fell by 36% for the least deprived 10% of areas, but only 25% for the most deprived 10% of areas.

Full detail at The Health Foundation

Speaking plainly about about what makes us healthy

This article from the Health Foundation discusses how changing the conversation will help to build public understanding of how social determinants affect health.

The Health Foundation is currently working with the FrameWorks Institute to develop a deeper appreciation of the ways in which people understand and think about health, to develop more effective approaches to communicating evidence.

A recent Health Foundation briefing explored how people think about what makes them healthy. It identifies four main communication challenges that can act as barriers to wider public acceptance of the evidence on the social determinants of health, including:

• broadening what is understood by the term health
• increasing understanding of the role of the social determinants of health
• increasing understanding of how social and economic inequalities drive health inequalities
• generating an understanding of the policy action needed to keep people healthy.

The next stage of their work with the FrameWorks Institute will be to develop and test strategies to address these challenges.

In the meantime, the Health Foundation offers some general guidance to bear in mind when communicating to the public around prevention and health issues including:

• Beware of gesturing towards the importance of individual choice or responsibility.
• Avoid ‘crisis messaging’ as this can backfire by reinforcing people’s sense of fatalism and encouraging disengagement.
• Use step-by-step, causal explanations of how social determinants affect health, and provide concrete examples to help deepen the public’s understanding.

Full article at the Health Foundation

BMJ: Tobacco dependence should be recognised as a lethal non-communicable disease

BMJ| 2019| Tobacco dependence should be recognised as a lethal non-communicable disease |BMJ|365| l2204

An editorial in the BMJ argues that reframing tobacco dependence as a lethal non-communicable disease would extend the scope of tobacco control. 

Read the editorialTobacco dependence should be recognised as a lethal non-communicable disease

New research underlines the health consequences of eating ultra-processed food

Two studies, which looked at the impact of consuming ultra- processed foods on health, report that higher consumption of ultra-processed foods ( more than 4 servings daily) was independently associated with a 62% relatively increased hazard for all cause mortality in the first study;  and in the second study an association was identified between higher consumption of ultra-processed foods with higher risks of cardiovascular, coronary heart, and cerebrovascular disease.

The first study from the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra followed almost 20000 graduates of the university every two years to assess their diet through a questionnaire.

The second study- a population-based cohort study- led by the University of Paris recruited over 100000 participants: dietary intakes were collected using repeated 24 hour dietary records (5.7 for each participant on average),  to record participants’ usual consumption of 3300 food items. These foods were categorised using the NOVA classification according to degree of processing.

Both studies are available in the BMJ

Rico-Campà, A.,  et al. 2019| Association between consumption of ultra-processed foods and all cause mortality: SUN prospective cohort study| BMJ|365 |l1949

Srourm, B. et al. | 2019| Ultra-processed food intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: prospective cohort study (NutriNet-Santé)|  BMJ|365| l1451

In the news:

BBC News Ultra-processed food linked to early death

The Homelessness Monitor: England 2019

Crisis &  Joseph Rowntree Foundation | May 2019| The Homelessness Monitor: England 2019

The Homelessness Monitor is the eighth annual report commissioned and funded by Crisis and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) as well as the People’s Postcode Lottery, the report analyses the impact of economic and policy developments on homelessness, drawing on a survey of councils, statistical analysis and in-depth interviews. It also highlights
emerging trends and forecasts some of the likely future changes, identifying the
developments likely to have the most significant impacts on homelessness. 

Image source: crisis.org.uk

Among the key findings:

• 71 per cent of local authorities participating in this year’s LA survey reported that homelessness had been recently increasing – in a quarter of cases to a “significant” extent. Nationally, 2017/18 saw a small drop in the recorded statutory homelessness caseload, although it still remains 42 per cent above their 2009 low point

Very few local authority respondents believed that existing social housing provision in their area is commensurate with homelessness needs, but many were at least equally concerned about the problematic profile of the local social housing stock portfolio, mismatched to need. There were also widespread anxieties about ongoing changes to housing association tenancy allocation policies impeding local authorities’ ability to resolve homelessness (Source: Crisis)

The Homelessness Monitor: England 2019 (pdf)

The Homelessness Monitor: England 2019 Executive Summary (pdf)

A life course approach to the prevention of ill health

The latest edition of Health Matters from Public Health England focuses on taking a life course approach to the prevention of ill health and explores the evidence base for this approach. The resource signposts to evidence-based interventions and tools, as well as to evaluation and monitoring techniques.

Unlike a disease-oriented approach, which focuses on interventions for a single condition often at a single life stage, a life course approach considers the critical stages, transitions, and settings where large differences can be made in promoting or restoring health and wellbeing.

Image source: publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk

A life course approach values the health and wellbeing of both current and future generations. It recognises that:

• there are a wide range of protective and risk factors that interplay in health and wellbeing over the life span
• maintaining good functional ability is the main outcome of the life course approach to health
• functional ability can be enhanced throughout life by a supportive environment
• by altering policies, environments, and societal norms, inequalities affecting the life course trajectory can be reduced, which could benefit the whole population across the lifespan, as well as future generations

In terms of tackling health inequalities across the life course, there are multiple actions that can be taken, for which PHE have relevant resources. These include:

1. Building healthy and resilient communities
2. Adopting a place-based approach to health
3. Tackling housing and fuel poverty
4. Taking action on poverty and health
5. Taking action on health and justice

Full resource: Health Matters: Prevention – A Life Course Approach

See also: Health matters blog

Adult excess weight, physical activity and fruit/vegetable consumption

The PHE Obesity Intelligence team has produced supporting data for the updated indicator on excess weight in adults (aged 18 and over) in the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF).

Breakdowns of local authority prevalence data by BMI category are presented in an Excel spreadsheet: underweight, healthy weight, overweight, obese, severe obesity and excess weight.

The new figures for 2017-18 can be downloaded here: Adult excess weight 2017-18  and are also available to download from the PHE Obesity Intelligence KHub Public Library.

The updated adult excess weight PHOF indicator is:
2.12 – Percentage of adults (aged 18+) classified as overweight or obese

PHOF indicators on physical activity and fruit and vegetable consumption have also been updated:

2.13i – Percentage of physically active adults

2.13ii – Percentage of physically inactive adults

2.11i – Proportion of the population meeting the recommended ‘5-a-day’ on a ‘usual day’ (adults)

2.11ii – Average number of portions of fruit consumed daily (adults)

2.11iii – Average number of portions of vegetables consumed daily (adults)

 

Heart and circulatory disease deaths in under 75’s see first sustained rise in 50 years

The number of people dying from heart and circulatory diseases before they reach their 75th birthday is on the rise for the first time in 50 years, according to analysis of the latest national health statistics | British Heart Foundation (BHF)

Figures show an upward trend in deaths since 2014, with 42,384 people dying from conditions including heart attack and stroke in the UK before the age of 75 in 2017, compared to 41,042 three years earlier.

The number of deaths caused by heart and circulatory diseases in under 65s is also increasing, peaking at 18,668 in 2017, up from 17,982 five years earlier. This represents a 4% rise in the last five years, compared to a 19% decline in the five years before.

The figures have been released as the BHF launch a new strategy, which warns against complacency, and sets ambitions for the UK to halve premature death and disability from stroke, and increase heart attack survival to 90% by 2030.

Full detail at British Heart Foundation

This video provides an overview of the British Heart Foundation’s  strategy to 2030: