JSNA Blog - January

Welcome to the JSNA blog for January 2026

As always, we welcome comments, feedback and suggestions.

Photo by Ellie - Suffolk County Council

We welcome your photos of Suffolk to use in a future blog!

Email us at: knowledgeandIntelligence@suffolk.gov.uk

Cardiovascular Disease in Suffolk

We have produced a Cardiovascular disease (CVD) profile. The profile encompasses a range of heart and blood vessel conditions—such as coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, peripheral arterial disease, chronic kidney disease and vascular dementia—which together account for around a quarter of all deaths in England.

Despite mortality rates steadily decreasing, the burden remains heavy, driven by shared risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, poor diet, obesity, smoking and inactivity. Because most CVD is preventable, early intervention—such as NHS Health Checks and CVDPREVENT audits—are pivotal in reducing Suffolk’s health impact and improving population wellbeing.

Why it matters in Suffolk

In 2024, Suffolk recorded 2,027 cardiovascular disease (CVD) deaths—around 201 per 100,000 population, which is lower than England’s 219 per 100,000. In line with this trend, premature CVD mortality (under 75s) was also lower at 61 per 100,000, compared to 74 nationally.

However, there are important local considerations: hypertension affects 18% of Suffolk residents, above the national average of 15.2%, and undiagnosed high blood pressure sits at 9.1%, placing Suffolk in England’s highest quintile. Combined with an ageing population, this means future demand for prevention and management will grow.

Key drivers of CVD risk: inequalities, variation and underlying factors

Behind the averages, some groups face greater risk:

Sex: Males have nearly double the premature CVD mortality rate of females (88.6 vs 42.5 per 100,000 under 75).
Age: Suffolk’s age profile means the population carries a higher underlying susceptibility to cardiovascular disease, simply because a larger share of residents are older adults, particularly older women.
Ethnicity: While Suffolk is 93% White, minority groups—especially South Asian and Black communities—carry higher risks linked to hypertension and diabetes.
Deprivation: Socioeconomic disadvantage is tied to increased CVD risk. Hypertension and overweight prevalence rise in more deprived areas. Overweight and obesity rates also exceed national averages (67% vs 64.5%, and 28.5% vs 26.5%).

For the full profile, visit the Suffolk JSNA Cardiovascular Disease page.

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What is Local Insight?

Local Insight is an online tool that brings together a huge range of open data—covering health, housing, education, employment, and more—at very local levels. It allows us to map and compare data for neighbourhoods, wards, and custom areas, making it easy to see patterns and trends that might otherwise be hidden in county-wide averages.

Why is it important for Suffolk and the JSNA?

For Suffolk’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA), Local Insight is a key tool to understand our communities . It helps us:

Spot variation and potential inequalities: We can drill down to small areas to see where things including deprivation and poor health outcomes, are concentrated.
Support decision-making: Local Insight provides evidence for planning services, targeting interventions, and shaping policy.
Engage communities: Visual maps and accessible data make it easier to share insights with partners and residents.

In short, Local Insight turns raw data into actionable intelligence—helping Suffolk focus resources where they’re needed most and improve wellbeing across the county.

Find out more

Upcoming webinars delivered by OCSI (who provide Local Insight for Suffolk)

15th of January: A live walkthrough of Local Insight’s different features - including a demo of the new Services Directory.

29th of January: A webinar unpacking the Indices of Deprivation (IoD) and how they can be used within Local Insight, as well as answering your data questions.

View the profile and our other JSNA products using the JSNA searchable index below:

Recent national publications:

The State of the Nation's Food Industry report 2025: The Food Foundation have published their flagship report. This year's report shows that we cannot continue to leave progress on healthy and sustainable sales to the market. Healthy and sustainable food remains unavailable and unaffordable for far too many.
Primary and community healthcare support for people living with frailty: This National Audit Office report highlights that early diagnosis of frailty, along with the right support, can slow its progression and delay loss of independence, enabling older people to live longer and healthier lives. Despite DHSC’s and NHS England’s (NHSE) recognition of the importance of earlier identification and care, there are clear failings in how GPs assess and support people living with frailty, with worrying unexplained variation in practice across England.
Opiate and crack cocaine use: prevalence estimates 2022 to 2023: Estimates of the number and rates of people using opiates and/or crack cocaine in England between April 2022 and March 2023.
Freedom from violence and abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls: This strategy sets out the government’s vision and actions for meeting its ambition to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.

This month the JSNA workplan is focused on:

Finalising a healthy pregnancy profile
Drafting the Mental Health Needs Assessment
Finalising the Annual Public Health Report 2025
We are planning annual updates to our core infographics on the website
Scoping new profiles on men's health, end of life, alcohol, substance misuse, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), and respiratory health

The Suffolk Observatory

The Suffolk Observatory contains all Suffolk’s vital statistics. It is the one-stop-shop for data, statistics and reports all about Suffolk provided by a variety of organisations.

Through data, reports and analysis, the Suffolk Observatory provides a comprehensive picture of the county and is a great source for useful facts and figures that will help you write reports and presentations, inform strategic and business planning, prepare funding applications or support academic research.

Take a look at the SODA reports page for all the recent publications by the Suffolk Office of Data and Analytics.

JSNA Blog - January

Cardiovascular Disease in Suffolk

More information:

What is CVD?

Why it matters in Suffolk

Take the NHS Healthy Choices Quiz!