Beyond the census: a spatial analysis of health and deprivation in England

Abstract

Whilst the UK is planned to have a census in 2021, it may well be the last and there is official acknowledgement that the country's statistical system should be enhanced by greater use of administrative data. Thus, there is a pressing need to understand whether alternative data sources are fit for social science purposes. This study assesses the potential of utilizing administrative statistics for investigating the relationships between health and socioeconomic distributions for small areas; a type of study regularly carried out using census data. measures with health found to be poorer in areas with socioeconomic disadvantage. Overall, the administrative datasets used here reveal very similar patterns of health and deprivation to the decennial census suggesting they are viable alternatives and have great potential to enhance the country's statistical system given their availability outside census years.

Using the 2001 and 2011 Censuses to reconcile ethnic group estimates and components for the intervening decade for English local authority districts

“…These sources can provide valuable univariate population attribute information (Ajebon and Norman, 2015) but not cross-tabulations, especially with an ethnic group dimension. Cutting out censuses removes the most reliable knowledge about our population and prejudices the reliability of future prognoses.…”

Demographic and Health Time-Series Analysis of Small Areas in GB: The Development of Area Measures and Population Estimates

“…The same methods have been used to analyse changing deprivation for small areas in Australia. 16 In applied work, the resources have mainly been used for health related research of; infant mortality, 17 all cause mortality, 18,19 cause specific mortality; 20 limiting long-term illness and incapacity benefit, [21][22][23] of children with life limiting conditions 24,25 and in small animal veterinary practice. 26 Further topics include small area analyses of local democracy, 27 environmental equity, 28 traffic accidents 29 and fire risk.…”

Harmonising Incompatible Datasets to Enable GIS Use to Study Non-communicable Diseases in Tonga

“…The problems with the urban-rural dichotomy is that variability of health in relation to urbanicity is unclear, and the reliability and validity of measuring the effects of urbanization on NCD risk factors and interventions is dependent on the spatial scale used (Wang, 2020). Rather than focusing on urban and rural areas, there has been a lot of interest in the association of ill health and deprivation across different geographical areas (Ajebon & Norman, 2016;Seaman et al, 2019). Many high-income countries have used country specific census variables and administrative boundaries at a selected geographical level to develop indices to measure deprivation (Carstairs, 1995;Deas et al, 2003;Havard, 2008;Pampalon, 2009;Salmond & Crampton 2012).…”