The Health News United Kingdom January 22 2018

• Adulthood does not begin until twenty four, scientists have concluded because young people are continuing their education for longer and delaying marriage and parenthood. The traditional definition for adolescence is currently between and the ages of 10 and 19, which marked the beginnings of puberty and the perceived end of biological growth. However other academics argued that just because young people were unmarried or still in education did not mean they were not fully functioning adults.
• According to figures, the UK is experiencing its worst flu season since two thousand eleven. Analysis by the Royal College of GPs has found that in England, the number of people visiting their doctor with flu has gone up by more than 150% since the start of the year. An estimated thirty 1,300 patients went to their GP practice with influenza-like-illness between January 8 and 14 – an increase of more than 9,000 on the previous week.
• A new report shows that Northern Ireland has one of the highest weekly food and drink bills in the UK. Households pay out £62.50 weekly on food and non-alcoholic drinks – more than anywhere else bar the South East of England. Households in Northern Ireland also spent more than any other UK region on alcohol, tobacco and narcotics (£16.10 compared to a UK average of £11.80), as well as clothing and footwear (£35.60 versus a weekly UK average of £24.10).

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 22nd of January 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/01/19/adulthood-now-begins-24-say-scientists-young-people-delay-work/

Adulthood does not begin until twenty four, scientists have concluded because young people are continuing their education for longer and delaying marriage and parenthood. The traditional definition for adolescence is currently between and the ages of ten and nineteen, which marked the beginnings of puberty and the perceived end of biological growth. But, writing in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, scientists from the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne argue the timings needs to be changed.

They point to the fact that the brain continues to mature beyond the age of twenty, and many people’s wisdom teeth do not come through until the age of twenty five. And people are also getting married and having children later, with the average man entering their first marriage aged thirty two point five and women thirty point six, an increase of eight years since the nineteen seventies.

Lead author Professor Susan Sawyer, said delays in young people leaving education, settling down and becoming parents, showed adolescence was now longer and argued that policies that support youth should be extended beyond teenage years. Countries such as New Zealand already treat children who have been in care as vulnerable until they are twenty five, allowing them the same rights as youngsters.

However other academics argued that just because young people were unmarried or still in education did not mean they were not fully functioning adults.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/uk-experiencing-worst-flu-epidemic-in-seven-years-a3743691.html

According to figures, the UK is experiencing its worst flu season since two thousand eleven. Analysis by the Royal College of General Practitioners has found that in England, the number of people visiting their doctor with flu has gone up by more than one hundred fifty percent since the start of the year.  An estimated thirty one thousand three hundred patients went to their GP practice with influenza-like-illness between January eight and fourteen – an increase of more than nine thousand on the previous week.

The latest figures show there were seventeen further deaths from flu in the last week, taking the total number of flu-related deaths this winter to one hundred twenty.  Public Health England also said there was an eleven percent increase in the flu hospitalisation rate, along with a forty two percent increase in the GP consultation rate with flu-like illness compared to the previous week.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have also seen increases. Figures from Health Protection Scotland showed that one hundred fourteen people per one hundred thousand of the Scottish population were reported as having a flu-like illness in the week ending January fourteen, up from one hundred seven per one hundred thousand the week before. Medical director of PHE, Professor Paul Cosford, said last week that doctors are seeing “a mix of flu types” as he told people it “is not too late” to get vaccinated. They include a deadly strain of the virus, known as “Australian flu”, A HthreeNtwo, which got its name after circulating in the UK last winter before spreading to Down Under.

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/northern-ireland-homes-are-uks-top-spenders-on-booze-and-cigs-36505200.html

A new report shows that Northern Ireland has one of the highest weekly food and drink bills in the UK. Households pay out sixty two pounds and fifty p weekly on food and non-alcoholic drinks – more than anywhere else bar the South East of England. Households in Northern Ireland also spent more than any other UK region on alcohol, tobacco and narcotics (sixteen pounds and ten p compared to a UK average of eleven pounds and eighty p), as well as clothing and footwear ( thirty five pounds and sixty p versus a weekly UK average of twenty four pounds and ten p).

The Office for National Statistics said one reason is that the average household size here (two point five people) is larger than the UK average ( two point three people). The report also points to cultural differences – here we consider items such as good quality cuts of meat to be more of an essential food item compared with those in England.
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The ONS report into household spending in the UK also reveals that we devote thirteen percent of our total expenditure to food and non-alcoholic drinks (sixty two pounds and fifty p), compared with the UK average of eleven percent (fifty seven pounds and seventy p). Northern Ireland households also spent a higher proportion of total expenditure on restaurant and cafe meals and takeaway meals when compared with Britain.