Many of Dorset’s health statistics are going in the wrong direction – although are generally still better than the national average.

County statistician Dr David Bonner says that some of us are increasingly resistant to change with the numbers of those who complete drug, smoking and alcohol courses declining. We are also getting fatter and dying younger.

Men who live in deprived areas of the county can now expected to live six years less than their better-off neighbours. The difference for women is 5.2 years, although both figures are better than national averages.

Women in the county are also boozing more, with over 400 a year ending up in hospital because of it, while the figures for men have remained static at 690 a year.

A report by Dr Bonner, presented to the county council’s people and communities overview committee on Wednesday concluded: “These inequalities may reflect poor access to, or take-up of services, social isolation and poor health in general.”

Alcohol treatment clients are doing less well when offered help – the percentage of those drinking less at 3 months fell from 60% to 38% between the fourth quarter of 2017-18 and the first quarter of 2018-19.

For young people on substance abuse courses the chances of completion has fallen from 88% to 53%.

Smokers are also doing less well at completing courses in the county – the percentage of clients smoking less at 3 months after a smoking cessation course worsened from 64% to 36% between Quarter 4 2017-18 and Quarter 1 2018-19.

And the report shows that the number of adults in the county who are overweight has increased, while nationally the figures have reduced.

Purbeck councillor Bill Trite questioned some of the statistics which he said must be skewed by the number of older, wealthier people moving into the county and more well-educated young people moving out.

He asked for figures at a future meeting dealing with people who were born in the county and still living here.

Weymouth councillor Kate Wheller said she found the drop in successful alcohol treatments “quite worrying.”

She suggested that more funding ought to be switched to supporting people after they had completed a drink or drug course: “If we are not doing that I almost feel that we might as well not bother.”

Cllr Shane Bartlett called for the suicide rates of young people to be included in the next set of figures; “I feel they are a group of people who are particularly suffering. We are bleeding young people out of this county at an accelerating rate: the young see no hope here, they see no future. We are creating an awful society for our young people,” he said.