School food: the essential guide (and Irish translation)

School food: the essential guide contains a series of eight practical guidance booklets designed to help schools improve pupils' nutrition and implement healthier eating and drinking practices. The booklets provide advice and support for the key areas in which food, drinks and nutrition issues affects schools. Mini case studies support the advice given and, where appropriate, the booklets provide details of recommended further resources.Individual booklets in the series are available as PDF files below:

Healthy breaks for schools poster (English and Irish)

Guidance on healthy breaks for schoolchildren.

Healthy breaks for schools leaflet (English and Irish)

Guidance on healthy breaks for schoolchildren. (Translations revised March 2014)

Healthy breaks for pre-school children leaflet (English and Irish translation)

Leaflet for parents explaining why a healthy break is so important for pre-school children and some tips and ideas for healthy nutritious breaks.�

Healthy breaks for pre-school children poster (English and Irish translation)

Poster explaining why a healthy break is important.�

Your activity record book (English and Irish translation)

This fun physical activity record book outlines the recommended physical activity guidelines for children aged 5 to 18 and includes an easy way for children to keep track of how much physical activity they are getting.(Irish translation of 2011 booklet)

Radon: indicative atlas for Northern Ireland

Radon Affected Area potential in Northern Ireland was estimated using a joint mapping method. This method allows variation of radon potential both between and within geological units. The estimates are based on the results of radon measurements and geological information for more than 23,000 homes. Elevated radon potential is presented here as indicative maps based on the highest radon potential for each 1 kilometre square of the Irish grid. The full definitive detail is published as a digital dataset for geographical information systems, which can be licensed. The estimated radon potential for an individual home can be obtained through the Public Health England (PHE) UKradon website. The work was partially funded by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and was prepared jointly by PHE and the British Geological Survey. This report replaces the 2009 review and atlas (HPA-RPD-061).

Demographic trends in suicide in the UK and Ireland 1980 - 2010.

Background Ireland has the 17th highest suicide rate in the EU and the 4th highest among 15 to 24-year-old males (WHO 2012). Suicide is the leading cause of death in this age group; death by hanging accounted for 69 % of suicides in 2010. Methods This study examines youth suicide rates from 1980 to 2010 in Ireland and compares them to the rates in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. Irish data were obtained from the Central Statistics Office and their annual reports on Vital Statistics. Northern Irish data were obtained from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency website; Scottish data were from the General Register Office for Scotland and English/Welsh data from the Office for National Statistics website. Results There has been a threefold increase in young male suicide in Ireland over the past three decades (8.9 - 29.7 per 100,000). In contrast, there has been approximately a threefold reduction in deaths by road traffic accidents in young men in the same period (42.7 - 16.2 per 100,000). Suicide rates in young men are similar in Scotland and Northern Ireland for the same period but are 50 % lower in England and Wales. Despite the rates of hanging as a method of suicide increasing in all jurisdictions, the overall rate in England and Wales has continued to decline. Conclusion The suicide rate in Ireland remains very high and strategies to address this are urgently required. Our study indicates that national suicide prevention strategies can be effective.

The iceberg of suicide and self-harm in Irish adolescents: a population-based study

PURPOSE Suicide is a leading cause of death among adolescents. Self-harm is the most important risk factor for suicide, yet the majority of self-harm does not come to the attention of health services. The purpose of this study was to establish the relative incidence of adolescent suicide, hospital-treated self-harm and self-harm in the community. METHODS Annual suicide rates were calculated for 15-17 year-old in the Cork and Kerry region in Ireland based on data from the Central Statistics Office. Rates of hospital-treated self-harm were collected by the Irish National Registry of Deliberate Self-Harm. Rates of self-harm in the community were assessed using a survey of 3,881 adolescents, the Child and Adolescent Self-harm in Europe study. RESULTS The annual suicide rate was 10/100,000. Suicide was six times more common among boys than girls. The annual incidence rate of hospital-treated self-harm was approximately 344/100,000, with the female rate almost twice the male rate. The rate of self-harm in the community was 5,551/100,000, and girls were almost four times more likely to report self-harm. For every boy who died by suicide, 16 presented to hospital with self-harm and 146 reported self-harm in the community. For every female suicide, 162 girls presented to hospital with self-harm and 3,296 reported self-harm. CONCLUSIONS Gender differences in relative rates of self-harm and suicide are very large, with boys who have harmed themselves at particularly high risk of suicide. Knowledge of the relative incidence of self-harm and suicide in adolescents can inform prevention programmes and services.

Evaluation of the uptake of voluntary calorie posting on menus in Ireland

This report was commissioned by the Department of Health, Ireland. Obesity is a public health problem in Ireland which is largely responsible for the increasing prevalence of diet-related diseases and growing financial burden on our healthcare system. Although overweight and obesity rates may have reached a plateau in Irish adults and children, they remain at an extremely high level as 1 in 4 children areoverweight or obese and an estimated 61% of adults are overweight or obese. Urgent public health action is required to reduce the levels of obesity among our children and adults. A sustainable national intervention strategy that combines government and community-led interventions is required. These interventions need to incorporate both nutrition education and environmental modification strategies to reduce levels of obesity. International literature suggests that calorie posting has the potential to have a positive effect on the obesity crisis by encouraging people to make healthier food choices through informed consumer decisions. This evaluation focuses on the uptake of voluntary calorie posting from a national representative sample of food service businesses in Ireland and explores the attitudes of food service businesses that do and do not display calories. This evaluation will explore the most effective and efficient way of implementing mandatory calorie posting on menus in Ireland.

Assisted reproductive technology – IVF treatment in Ireland: A study of couples with successful outcomes

Human Fertility 17(3):165-9 This article describes the experiences of twelve Irish couples who had successful IVF treatment in Ireland. Irish Medical guidelines specify that IVF may only be used when no other treatment is likely to be effective. This article is based on data drawn from a longitudinal research study by Cotter (2009) which tells the stories of 34 couples who sought fertility treatment. Initially, the women assumed that they would become pregnant when they stopped using contraception. As a couple, it was the ‘right time’ for them to have a child - they were ready, socially and financially. For several months they were patient, hoping it would happen naturally. With envy and some despair they watched as their friends had babies. Infertility came as a shock to most of them. They were reluctant to talk about it to anyone, and over time their anxieties were accompanied by feelings of regret, stigma and social exclusion. They finally sought medical treatment. The latter involved a series of diagnostic treatments, which eventually culminated in IVF which offered them a final chance of having a ‘child of their own’. While IVF can be clinically assessed in terms of cycle success rates, their stories showed treatment as a series of discoveries, as an extensive range of diagnostic tests and procedures helped to reveal to them where their problems might lie. They described their treatments as a series of sequential ‘hurdles’ that they had to overcome, which further strengthened their resolve to try IVF. Much more knowledgeable at that stage, they embraced IVF as a final challenge with single minded dedication while drawing on all their psychological and biological resources to promote a successful outcome. Of the 34 couples who took part in the study, twelve got pregnant. Unfortunately, two children died shortly after birth but eighteen babies survived (see Table I). The findings suggest that health policy should raise awareness of infertility, and advise women to become aware of it just as in the past, when health policy addressed contraception. Increased public knowledge would reduce the stigma attached to the inability to have a baby. In the Irish case, infertility diagnosis should be reviewed with a view to giving eligible couples earlier access to IVF.  

Child Health Care in Ireland

The Irish health care system is based on a complex and costly mix of private, statutory, and voluntary provisions. The majority of health care expenditure comes from the state, with a significant proportion of acute hospital care funded from private insurance, but there are relatively high out-of-pocket costs for most service users. There is free access to acute hospital care, but not for primary care, for all children. About 40% of the population have free access to primary care. Universal preventive public health services, including vaccination and immunization, newborn blood spot screening, and universal neonatal hearing screening are free. Major health challenges include poverty, obesity, drug and alcohol use, and mental health. The health care system has been dominated for the last 5 years by the impact of the current recession, which has led to very sharp cuts in health care expenditure. It is unclear if the necessary substantial reform of the system will happen. Government policy calls for a move toward a patient-centered, primary care-led system, but without very substantial transfers of resources and investment in Information and Communication Technology, this is unlikely to occur. The paper has been published as part of an overall report of Child Health in Europe: Diversity of Child Health Care in Europe: A Study of the European Paediatric Association/Union of National European Paediatric Societies and Associations http://www.jpeds.com/issue/S0022-3476(16)X0010-8 . (J Pediatr 2016;177S:S87-106).  

Health Impact Assessment: A baseline report for Ireland and Northern Ireland

Report of the findings of the Institute's Health Impact Assessment (HIA) work programme in 2001, in order to (a) record the baseline of HIA awareness, activity and thinking in Ireland and Northern Ireland and (b) identify the issues around its implementation.

Health Impact Assessment and Waste Management with particular reference to Incineration: An introductory paper

This introductory brief has been written as a response to a request for information on HIA and waste management, with particular reference to incineration. EU legislation forms the basis for much of Irish waste management policy. Waste Management – Taking Stock and Moving Forward (2004) sets targets for increased prevention and minimisation, encourages reuse and gives preference to recovery and recycling, which is in line with the EU’s Sixth Environmental Action Plan (2002). In the area of waste incineration, the Waste Incineration Directive (2000/76/EC) has been transposed into Irish law and sets operating requirements for the incineration of waste.

Opportunity to shape the prevention and management of obesity

Cooperation and Working Together (CAWT), the cross border health and social care partnership has been working with the Departments of Health to progress a three year cross border obesity prevention and management project aimed at families. They have been successful in securing funding from the EU INTERREG IVA programme. A planning workshop focussing on this will be held on Friday 26 June 2009.