§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what the incidence of epilepsy and the death rate for epilepsy was(a) in total, (b) for men and (c) for women
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Trends in mortality from all causes (ICD9 001–999): Indirectly Standardised Ratios (SMR), 1989 to 1999 annually, all ages1 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 Males England and Wales SMR 106 103 102 98 100 95 95 93 90 89 87 OBS 280,097 276,104 276,399 270,580 278,245 265,843 271,761 268,888 265,190 263,314 262,248 Gateshead SMR 136 121 126 119 123 113 113 108 102 111 99 OBS 1387 1244 1318 1243 1306 1209 1222 1187 1130 1234 1114 Newcastle upon Tyne SMR 121 121 121 117 117 111 107 105 103 104 102 OBS 1,738 1,732 1,735 1,691 1,697 1,616 1,556 1,531 1,502 1,519 1,487 North Tyneside SMR 118 121 117 112 111 105 102 108 98 103 94 OBS 1,199 1,256 1,224 1,184 1,192 1,133 1,121 1,202 1,104 1,172 1,070 South Tyneside SMR 136 118 120 126 117 110 105 107 111 107 106 OBS 1091 960 984 1,043 974 925 906 936 981 952 949 Sunderland SMR 131 122 127 122 119 114 112 110 106 110 102 OBS 1,732 1,641 1,737 1,685 1,653 1,614 1,596 1,593 1,551 1,641 1,527 Females England and Wales SMR 104 100 100 97 100 95 96 96 95 93 94 OBS 294,841 286,775 291,709 285,868 298,487 284,278 292,582 292,564 291,294 288,680 289,800 Gateshead SMR 122 112 119 107 121 114 112 112 115 118 110 OBS 1,380 1,274 1,368 1,237 1,402 1,313 1,302 1,299 1,316 1,331 1,234 in each health authority in England in (i) 1996 and (ii) the most recent available year; and how these rates deviate from the national average. [37038]
§ Jacqui SmithThe Department does not collect information specifically on the incidence of epilepsy. However, it does collect information on the number of admissions to national health service hospitals for epilepsy by health authority. The available information has been placed in the Library.
The number of epilepsy deaths at health authority level is very small and subject to considerable random fluctuation. In both 1996 and 2000 the mean number of epilepsy deaths for health authorities was eight. These figures, therefore, cannot in themselves be taken as evidence of either trends over time, or real differences between areas.
The rates are presented as standardised mortality ratios (SMRs). The ratios are the numbers of "observed" deaths in each health authority to the numbers of "expected" deaths. These "expected" deaths are the number, which would have occurred if the sex and age-specific mortality rates for England were applied in each health authority. While SMRs allow for comparison between areas because the ratios presented here are based on very small numbers, even slight differences in numbers will have a marked effect on the resulting SMRs.