Today, The Times has reported that 21 per cent of people in England cannot expect good health beyond their thirtieth birthday and most by the age of just 50.
This is a piece we at ZPB have worked closely with Outcomes Based Healthcare (OBH) on and through persistence have reaped the rewards of the strong data analysis. It was promoted on the front page of The Times.
The story, A fifth of people will suffer from poor health before the age of 30, is about the OBH team’s ability to measure the health outcome healthspan. Healthspan is the length of the time people remain in good health, without a significant long-term condition (such as diabetes or serious mental illness), cancer, frailty, or learning or serious physical disability.
The piece also ran with OBH’s staggering estimate, that prolonging healthspan nationally by a year, 1.3 million people could gain an extra year of good health and the NHS could save up to £3.4 billion a year.
Two follow-up articles referencing OBH’s work were also published in The Times, Your experiences of chronic illness before 30 and Britain falls to the bottom for improving life expectancy.
The OBH team were also inundated with calls from local and national radio stations, such as TalkRadio, LBC and BBC Radio Birmingham, requesting interviews with Dr Rupert Dunbar-Rees, Founder/CEO of OBH.
Using OBH’s health data analysis skills we were able to produce a compelling press release, which drew out the key data points and angle that would work for a national news outlet.
This led to positive conversations with The Times and resulted in a piece in today’s paper.
Dr Rupert Dunbar-Rees tweeted:
“Fabulous to work with the top team at @ZPBLtd on this work. Important from the perspective of healthy life years lost/gained, but also because the NHS is fighting for a financially sustainable future. We have to get this right.”
For information about how ZPB can help with your media activity, please get in touch with Alex Metcalfe, alex.metcalfe@zpb-associates.com or 07834522992.