Sunderland named worst place in the North East for childhood obesity - but improvements made in smoking rates

The update came as part of the latest Sunderland City Council “healthy city plan performance overview” which provides statistics on how the city is fairing in a variety of areas.

Health bosses stressed they are “already working on” improvements across the board and progress is being seen in many areas, with the ambition of this continuing and extending further.

Sheila Rundle, senior public health intelligence analyst, reported adult smoking rates in Sunderland continue to fall steadily, with an estimated prevalence of 12.3% in 2023, down from 18.2% in 2020.

The city has also closed the gap with the England average rate, which was 11.6% in 2023, with the gap previously being 4.4% in 2020, compared to just 0.7% for the 2023 figures.

Ms Rundle said: “We’re really seeing an improvement.”

Meanwhile mothers smoking during pregnancy at the time of delivery has been on a “downward trajectory” since 2019/20, with the figure being 11.2% in 2023/24, compared to 18.3% in 2019/20.

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However Ms Rundle noted this is still “significantly higher than the England average” of 7.4% “so there is still work to do”.

City health chiefs reported in other positive news breastfeeding prevalence at six to eight weeks has continued to improve since 2019/20, rising from 25.7% to 33.6% in 2023/24.

However, Sunderland continues to be “significantly” below the England average of 52.7% despite a narrowing of the gap.

Meanwhile the proportion of adults classed as overweight or obese fell from 73.9% in 2021/22 to 65.1% in 2022/23, meaning there is now no significant difference from the England average.

However the Year 6 prevalence of children being classed as overweight or obese has risen from 41.2% in 2022/23 to 42.3% in 2023/24, higher than the North East average of 38.6% and “significantly higher” than the England average of 35.8%

Ms Rundle added it means Sunderland is the “worst in the North East for this period” and “a widening of the gap” to the national average from 2022/23 to 2023/24.

Officers note a healthy weight steering group is taking a “system-wide approach to try to improve infrastructure and the environment” to address the issue.

Elsewhere Sunderland’s “admission episodes” for alcohol related conditions was 2,556 per 100,000, which has “reduced slightly and fluctuated” since 2020.

However it is “significantly higher” than both England (1,705) and the North East (2,364) averages.

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The rate for the three-year period 2020/21-2022/23 for under 18s alcohol admissions per 100,000 was 58.2 for Sunderland – an improvement on the previous rate of 64.7.

However this is still above the North East rate of 48.7 and the England rate of 26.0.

City council officers stressed the next steps will include looking at approaches to address specific gaps across the different areas, with “a long list of recommendations in place”.

The information was all presented in a report to the latest meeting of Sunderland’s health and wellbeing board.

Councillor Kelly Chequer, chair of the board and deputy leader of the council, said there “is a lot of good work happening and there are a lot of good results there”.

She added: “Some of those that I’m particularly pleased to see are the breastfeeding rates, I’m really pleased with the work we do on that. I do think our family hubs have something to do with that.

“And the [decrease in] smoking at the time of delivery as well.”

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The cabinet member for health, wellbeing and safer communities continued: “It’s about setting an ambition for reducing that inequality gap not just within the city, because we’ve clearly seen there is progress in the city.

“But that gap between Sunderland and England where we still have a significant inequality.”

Gerry Taylor, council executive director of health, housing and communities, stressed they are “already working on” improvements in the areas highlighted.

She added while “a lot of these metrics have improved” their ambition is to “continue to improve” further.