Written question asked by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Friday, 28 February 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 12 March 2003. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern (Labour) on Wednesday, 12 March 2003 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his estimate is of the number of (a) children and (b) young adults with muscular dystrophy in each of the last 10 years. - Inc table.

Answer: Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his estimate is of the number of (a) children and (b) young adults with muscular dystrophy in each of the last 10 years. [100967] Jacqui Smith: The data show counts of in-patient admissions to national health service hospitals in England since 1995 where muscular dystrophy was diagnosed during the first episode of care. We do not have the equivalent figures prior to 1995-96. This is due to changes in coding, which took place in 1995. All diagnoses, first episode of spell G71.0 muscular dystrophy, finished consultant episodes: Count of in-year admissions--NHS hospitals England 1995-96 to 2001-02 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 0-17 18-24 25-34 35 and over Not known Total 1995-96 477 144 175 623 2 1,421 1996-97 552 125 146 730 0 1,553 1997-98 673 217 169 751 2 1,812 1998-99 677 220 187 837 0 1,921 1999-2000 619 176 182 783 1 1,761 2000-01 652 168 186 760 0 1,766 2001-02 635 191 197 751 3 1,777 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Note: This table is derived from ungrossed HES data.

Secondary information