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NORTH East folk are being urged to back public transport - to live longer and lift the region off the bottom of the health league. A new report by public health experts has confirmed that the area retains the unenviable record of being the worst in the country in the health stakes. But commuters who ditch the car and walk to and from Metro stations and buses can help the North East lose that unwanted tag - and help to give themselves a longer, healthier life in the process. Public transport users already walk 20 minutes per day on average, according to statistics, a fact which Nexus, the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive, is keen to highlight. Nexus Director General Mike Parker said: “Public transport provides a convenient and quick way of getting to work and visiting friends, particularly in urban areas. “But it can also help the people who use it to be healthier by building exercise into their daily routines.” The government's Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has already told the public that 30 minutes of exercise a day could have serious health benefits. His report published last year showed that public transport users who walk to and from stops - or better still, get off early to walk for longer - are going the extra mile when it comes to avoiding coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancers. Now the importance of that message has hit home even harder, with the latest nation-wide study from the Association of Public Health Observatories making stark reading for the area. Regional director of public health Dr Bill Kirkup has stressed that the latest report reveals ‘major problems’ for people in the region - and he called on the North East community to unite in getting the message across. “We can only make the sort of rapid progress we are looking for if everyone knows the score and then pulls together to make the North East as healthy as other regions,” he said. “Most of us in the health community are acutely aware of the major problems we face. “But we have come to realise over the last couple of years that many others in the community do not appreciate the extent of our difficulties.” Some of most worrying findings of the report - Lifestyle and its Impact on Health - include: - The region has the worst death rates for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - The North East has the highest incidence of lung cancer - 40 per cent of young men in the North East are overweight or obese - Northumberland and Tyne & Wear have the joint worst records for high blood pressure in men, along with North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire - The region has the highest hospital admission rate for strokes and has an admission rate for heart disease 50 per cent higher than the South West. It is no surprise, then, that these worrying trends are having a serious impact on life expectancy in the region. Professor John Wilkinson, director of the North East Public Health Observatory, said: “On average life expectancy in the North East is around three years less than in parts of the south. “These figures emphasise the need for us to redouble our efforts to improve health in the North East.”
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