- Public Health Wales have very limited access to primary care data, so cannot provide a comprehensive demographic breakdown of registered population by cluster. Aggregate GP practice lists for a combined picture of the cluster age and sex cluster registered population profile.
- Anticipate current demand for local health and care services by making assumptions based upon the resident population profile.
- A total population count provides a denominator that can be used with expected incidence rates or prevalence proportions (e.g. if asthma prevalence is 12% in the Welsh population, multiply by cluster list size to estimate total persons with asthma expected to need care locally; compare this number with the measured count of persons with a coded diagnosis of asthma).
- Population age bands can be used to estimate an expected frequency of health and well-being needs across the life course. For example, the local emphasis may vary between health issues among children (including pregnancy) e.g. exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs); young people e.g. self-harming; people of working age e.g. stress/ anxiety; and among older people e.g. frailty.
- Population counts by sex can help determine the size of target population for planning a sex-specific intervention e.g. breast screening promotion (especially in combination with age band). Sex also helps predict the risk of some health events, such as suicides.
- Population counts by ethnicity can help estimate influences on the overall cluster prevalence of some health conditions (e.g. Is diabetes at the level expected—and if not why not?), gauge potential language requirements and other considerations for ensuring culturally-appropriate access to health information, and are a basis for exploring potential inequalities in access to or outcomes from health care.
A measure of rurality can help identify a population cohort that experience certain health challenges, such as access to hospital-based services.