Living, coping, thriving: exploring preventative health behaviours of people aged 50-66 in Surrey

Healthwatch Surrey explored people’s behaviour, attitudes and motivation relating to some of the indicators in Surrey's Health and Wellbeing Strategy, adding qualitative insight to existing quantitative metrics. The research focussed specifically on the attitudes of people in their 50s and 60s (those approaching the age range which, statistically, uses the NHS and social care the most) to their own health and wellbeing.  They spoke to 153 people.

Geographically, they focussed on Spelthorne – the neighbourhood with the poorest health outcomes in Surrey - and compared to the rest of Surrey. Some people said that their first priority was ‘survival’. Finding work, paying rent, accessing food, transport issues and, for some, overcoming bereavement are uppermost in their minds, before thinking about their health and wellbeing. 

Only a small proportion of people currently claim to have excellent physical health and many people have concerns about their future health. The majority of people with concerns about their future health claim to be doing something to combat them and uptake of screening programmes is good. However, less than half do the recommended amount of physical activity and only around a quarter eat the recommended 5 portions of fruit or vegetables per day. Supporting the plethora of existing data on this topic, Healthwatch found that people who are more active have better mental health outcomes than those who are less active.

Overall, excellent mental health is more prevalent than excellent physical health. People with long-term conditions report worse mental health than others. People talked about the importance of social connection for their mental health, but for some, the lack of opportunities in their local area is a challenge. People who have done voluntary unpaid work in their neighbourhood have better mental health scores than those who don’t. The proportion of residents who reported doing unpaid work to help their community in the last year is significantly lower in Spelthorne than elsewhere in Surrey. 

Healthwatch also looked at whether people are, or feel, safe. More than a third of people in Spelthorne said they had been impacted by anti-social behaviour, double the rate that was reported elsewhere in Surrey.