Standard of Healthy Living on the Island of Ireland

Pre-requisites for health are equity, minimum income, nutrition, peace, water, sanitation, housing, education, work, political will and public support (WHO, 1986). It has long been known that social disadvantage harms health (Black, 1980, Ettner, 1996). Many researchers have documented that those in lower socio-economic groups are more at risk of developing major chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases (Beaglehole and Yach, 2003, WHO, 2003a), diabetes (Wilder et al., 2005), and some cancers (Brunner et al., 1993, Strong et al., 2005), and are at a higher risk of having multiple risk factors associated with these diseases (Lynch et al., 1997). The living standards that many people enjoy and the behavioural choices they make are heavily determined by their access to resources such as income, wealth, goods and services (O’Flynn and Murphy, 2001). The most prominent explanation between disadvantage and health is that lack of resources restricts access to the fundamental conditions of health such as adequate housing (Macintyre et al., 2003, Macintyre et al., 2005), good nutrition (Nelson et al., 2002) and opportunities to participate in society (McDonough et al., 2005). Each of these issues are very much influenced by material and structural factors inherent to and determined by fiscal, social and health policy (Graham and Kelly, 2004, Milio, 1986).

Foodborne infections & gastrointestinal disease on the island Of Ireland in 2002

A safefood consultation paper, ‘Towards the Enhancement of Foodborne Disease Surveillance’ indicated that the guiding principles for the development of surveillance in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland should be the integration of data collection systems and analysis of combined data. The current surveillance systems have developed independently from each other and clinical, food and animal surveillance systems remain un-integrated in both jurisdictions. A more complete and efficient food safety system could be achieved through co-ordination and linkages across the disease surveillance systems and jurisdictions. For that reason, stronger links are being developed between safefood, surveillance agencies, government departments and public health professionals. This report is an examination and review of the clinical surveillance data collected in both jurisdictions. The work was undertaken as part of safefood’s support for the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET), which trains EU medical practitioners, public health nurses, microbiologists or veterinarians in all aspects of foodborne disease surveillance.

Infectious Intestinal Diseases on the Island of Ireland

It is increasingly recognised that the burden of infectious intestinal diseases (IID) in a population is an important indicator of food safety. This report has examined four bacterial infections that frequently cause IID on the island of Ireland (IOI). Over the decade covered by this report, levels of Salmonella have declined substantially while levels of Campylobacter remain a real problem for Food Safety professionals on the IOI. Although much less common, the verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli O157 (VTEC O157) and Listeria infections present an on-going challenge because of their severity and associated long-term sequelae. Northern Ireland (NI) has a higher reported crude incidence rate of three of the included pathogens (Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria) than the Republic of Ireland (ROI), while VTEC 0157 was the exception. This may reflect differences in health seeking behaviour and reporting between the two jurisdictions and/or actual differences in incidence rates.

Food Behaviours: Healthy Eating on the island of Ireland

In the past, safefood’s consumer focused reviews (CFRs) have focused on key food chains including chicken, finfish, fruit and vegetables, milk, beef and pork. The reviews aimed to address consumer concerns surrounding food safety, production methods and nutritional issues related to key foods, with a view to communicating directly to consumers on those issues. More recently, there has been a shift in emphasis by safefood to address broader issues of consumer concern, such as food origin. The aim of the current CFR is different from previous reports. Instead of addressing key consumer food concerns, it focuses on understanding consumer food behaviour. Its primary aim is to inform the research, policies and practices of all those working towards changing consumer food safety and dietary behaviour on the island of Ireland and to ensure that communication with consumers is both evidence-based and effective.

Examining Nutrition Surveillance on the island of Ireland

The food we eat is a key determinant of our health and the monitoring of nutritional status is an essential element of monitoring public health. On the island of Ireland (IOI) there has been a wealth of nutrition data collected contributing to the nutrition surveillance picture, although no formal nutrition surveillance system currently exists in either jurisdiction. This report outlines recent and current activities contributing to nutrition surveillance on IOI and makes recommendations for the future. This is with a view to maximising the use of resources and harnessing and maintaining expertise in this important domain using a joint programming approach.

Conference 2012: Reaching Children's Outcomes: An All-Island Approach

Presentations from the inaugural conference of the Children's Research Network for Ireland and Northern Ireland, 26th September 2012.

Health Protection Inequalities on the island of Ireland: An introductory paper

Public health services in Ireland, North and South, are committed to addressing inequalities in health on the island of Ireland. This report, prepared by Dr Lorraine Doherty, Assistant Director of Public Health (Health Protection), Public Health Agency NI for the Institute of Public Health in Ireland (IPH), specifically highlights health inequalities in relation to infectious diseases and other areas of health protection such as chemical hazards and environmental disruption. Infectious diseases disproportionately affect the most vulnerable in society. These vulnerable groups bear the highest burden of disease in relation to infectious diseases. The report also highlights the impact of climate change on health protection and the impacts for water, food and vector borne diseases. The aim of this report is to enable a programme of work to begin to document health protection inequalities and develop action plans for addressing them on an all island basis.