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25 Feb 2009 : Column 888W—continued

Steroid Drugs

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in each Government region (a) under 18 years old and (b) in total were treated for steroid-related health problems in each of the last five years. [253949]

Dawn Primarolo: A direct answer cannot be given as it is hard to define what is meant by the term “steroid-related health problems”. Information is available on a count of hospital admissions for ‘poisoning (improper use) by steroids’ by age group and government office region for the last five years, and is shown in the following table. The footnotes to the table should used for data interpretation.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, an independent body advising the Government on drug related issues, is concerned about the misuse of anabolic steroids by the general public and in particular young people, and has established a working group to consider the evidence of harms more fully.

Count of hospital admissions for ‘poisoning (improper use) by steroids’( 1) by Age and Government office region Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector
	2006-07				2005-06				2004-05
	Under 18	18 and over	Unknown	Total	Under 18	18 and over	Unknown	Total	Under 18	18 and over	Unknown	Total
A-North East	21	246	—	267	11	208	—	219	9	214	—	223
B-North West	50	492	—	542	59	459	—	518	26	440	—	466
D-Yorkshire and The Humber	17	222	—	239	2	236	—	238	16	205	—	221
E-East Midlands	13	282	—	295	13	345	1	359	11	368	—	379
F-West Midlands	14	308	—	322	19	281	—	300	16	298	—	314
G-East of England	25	512	—	537	22	489	—	511	15	384	—	399
H-London	27	395	—	422	20	323	2	345	16	237	—	253
J-South East	43	473	—	516	28	476	—	504	27	430	—	457
K-South West	26	651	1	678	38	571	24	633	27	486	5	518
Non-England and Unknown	6	48	39	93	3	48	—	51	5	56	—	61
Total	242	3,629	40	3,911	215	3,436	27	3,678	168	3,118	5	3,291

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25 Feb 2009 : Column 890W

	2003-04				2002-03
	Under 18	18 and over	Unknown	Total	Under 18	18 and over	Unknown	Total
A-North East	4	263	—	267	14	259	—	273
B-North West	30	483	—	513	23	563	—	586
D-Yorkshire and The Humber	30	236	—	266	20	301	—	321
E-East Midlands	12	380	—	392	23	327	—	350
F-West Midlands	13	263	—	276	11	419	—	430
G-East of England	21	435	—	456	27	383	—	410
H-London	12	222	—	234	23	221	—	244
J-South East	23	405	1	429	32	434	2	468
K-South West	24	488	1	513	13	585	—	598
Non-England and Unknown	3	49	3	55	5	62	32	99
							—
Total	172	3,224	5	3,401	191	3,554	34	3,779
(1) The ICD-10 codes for poisoning (improper use) by steroids are: T38.0 Glucocorticoids and synthetic analogues T36.5 Other estrogens and progestogens T38.7 Androgens and anabolic congeners T50.0 Mineralcorticoids and their antagonists All of the following ICD-10 Y codes would be found in a secondary position and would indicate that the preceding condition was an adverse effect of steroids in therapeutic use (i.e. the adverse effect of a prescribed steroid drug): Y42.0 Glucocorticoids and synthetic analogues Y42.5 Other estrogens and progestogens Y42.7 Androgens and anabolic congeners Y54.0 Mineralocorticoids Y54.1 Mineralocorticoid antagonists (aldosterone antagonists) Notes: 1. Finished admission episodes: A finished admission episode is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one health care provider. Finished admission episodes are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Please note that admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year. 2. Data quality: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are compiled from data sent by more than 300 NHS trusts and primary care trusts (PCTs) in England. Data are also received from a number of independent sector organisations for activity commissioned by the English NHS. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care liaises closely with these organisations to encourage submission of complete and valid data and seeks to minimise inaccuracies and the effect of missing and invalid data via HES processes. While this brings about improvement over time, some shortcomings remain. 3. Assessing growth through time: HES figures are available from 1989-90 onwards. The quality and coverage of the data have improved over time. These improvements in information submitted by the NHS have been particularly marked in the earlier years and need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. Some of the increase in figures for later years {particularly 2006-07 onwards) may be due to the improvement in the coverage of independent sector activity. Changes in NHS practice also need to be borne in mind when analysing time series. For example, a number of procedures may now be undertaken in outpatient settings and may no longer be accounted for in the HES data. This may account for any reductions in activity over time. 4. Number of admissions in which the patient had a 'poisoning (improper use) by steroids'(1) primary or secondary diagnosis: These figures represent the number of admissions where the diagnosis was recorded in any of the 14 primary and secondary diagnosis fields in a Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. Each admission episode is only counted once in each count, even if the diagnosis is recorded in more than one diagnosis field of the record. Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The NHS Information Centre for health and social care

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