NW to remain number one stroke and heart attack death spot till 2020

The study's authors suggest poverty, unemployment, drink, cigarettes and unhealthy lifestyles may explain why prevalence rates for stroke and coronary heart disease are projected to get worse in the North West over the next ten years.

Making Chronic Conditions Count - a survey of chronic ill health and its prevalence on both sides of the border - predicts the North West region will continue to have the highest prevalence rate for high blood pressure, heart disease and strokes over the next decade.

A key finding of the report is that "very large numbers of adults across the island live with hypertension, angina and heart attack

(CHD), stroke and diabetes."

It reveals the prevalence of each of these conditions is much higher in the economically neglected North West, particularly in Strabane, Donegal and Londonderry; Belfast also records high prevalence rates.

"Local socio-economic circumstances affect the prevalence of chronic conditions in an area" and "adults living in more deprived areas are more likely to be living with a chronic condition," the research reveals.

This is especially true in Londonderry, Strabane and Donegal. The percentage of people living in Donegal in 2007 who had previously suffered a heart attack or angina was higher than anywhere else in the Republic of Ireland.

The highest rates were found in the older age categories with 8.6 per cent of 45-64-year-olds; 22.5 per cent of 65-74-year-olds; and 29.7 per cent of over 75s in Donegal having suffered from coronary heart diseases.

In Londonderry the equivalent rates were 8.7 per cent - second highest on the entire island after Strabane; 23 per cent - the highest on the island with Strabane; and 30.1 per cent - also the second highest rate on the island.

The report projects that by 2020 these rates will rise to 9.1 per cent - highest on the island with Strabane and Belfast; 23 per cent - second highest on the island after Strabane; and 30.9 per cent - second highest on the island after Strabane.

Stroke is equally prevalent in the North West. Once again the percentage of people living in Donegal in 2007 who had ever suffered a stroke was higher than elsewhere in ROI.

Two point seven per cent of 45-64-year-olds, 9.1 per cent of 65-74-year-olds and 15.5 per cent of over 75s in Donegal were reported as having suffered a stroke.

But this was again surpassed across the border in Londonderry where the corresponding rates for stroke were 2.8 per cent - second on the island after Strabane; 9.4 per cent - the highest on the island; and 15.7 per cent - the second highest after Strabane.

The IPHI study also predicts these rates will rise to 2.9 per cent - joint highest on the island with Belfast; 9.4 per cent - joint highest on the island with Strabane; and 15.9 per cent - joint highest on the island with Strabane, by 2020.

Diabetes and high blood pressure rates here are also collectively higher than anywhere else on the island with thousands of sufferers across a range of age groups in Strabane, Londonderry and Donegal making the North West a deathspot for these conditions.

Once again the study projects little change over the next ten years with diabetes and high blood pressure to be equally as prevalent here in 2020.

The authors of the study - published in March 2010 - point out that lots of people are dying throughout Northern Ireland and ROI as a result of these conditions.

"Chronic conditions are responsible for a significant proportion of early deaths. They reduce quality of life in many of the adults living with them, represent substantial financial costs to patients and the health and social care system, and cause a significant loss of productivity to the economy," it notes.

"Unless we address this growing burden we may continue to add more years to our lives without adding more life to those years.

"Chronic conditions occur more frequently among the poor and vulnerable. A range of interrelated factors including the social determinants of health such as poverty, unemployment and the environment, smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and physical activity are established risk factors for chronic conditions. These risk factors are distributed unevenly across society."