What we know
What information do we have about the Eastern Board area?
What is the result of this on our health locally?
Policies
What is happening in the Eastern Board area?

The document "Social Determinants of Health: The Solid Facts" set out the growing scientific knowledge on the social determinants of health. It argues that the need to direct our efforts towards social determinants is becoming increasingly clear. This means "up stream" public health, spreading awareness of and promoting debate on the social determinants.

The social gradient - people's social and economic circumstances strongly affect their health throughout life. Most diseases and causes of death are more common lower down the social hierarchy. Good heath involves reducing levels of educational failure, as well as the amount of job insecurity and the scale of income differences in society. Policies for education, employment and housing affect health standards.

Important foundations of adult health are laid in prenatal life and early childhood. Poor nutrition and physical development adversely affect the child's cognitive development. Parental poverty starts a chain of social risk. It begins in childhood with reduced readiness for and acceptance of school and goes on to poor behaviour and attainment at school and a raised risk of unemployment. This pattern of poor education and employment damages health and, ultimately cognitive functioning in old age.

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Levels of attainment are lower in the most deprived areas. In the 10% of the most deprived wards in Northern Ireland, around one third of school leavers achieved 5+ GCSE grade A* to C compared with more than half of all school leavers as a whole.

Almost one fifth of the N Ireland workforce has few or no formal qualifications and 24% of the working age population have literacy or numeracy problems, compared to 21% in England, 23% in Scotland and Republic of Ireland, and 24% in Wales. Sweden is best with only 7%.

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Education impacts strongly on a person’s self-esteem, lifelong training and employment opportunities, sense of purpose and income.

There is a strong link between levels of educational attainment achieved by young people and their social background. Children from lower income families and deprived areas tend to attain lower examination results than those form more affluent areas.

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