The stark health inequalities in our region have been laid bare, as it emerges that in one Norfolk town men living in the most deprived areas can expect to live for almost a decade less than those living in the most affluent areas.

The huge gaps in life expectancy are at their greatest in Great Yarmouth, where the difference in how long a man can expect to live can differ by 9.5 years, depending on where he lives.

Across the whole of Norfolk, the gap in life expectancy is 5.8 years for men and 1.9 years for women, while in Suffolk it is 5.7 and 4.4 years, and in Cambridgeshire, 7.2 and 5.3 years respectively for men and women.

The positive news is that most areas have seen the rate of early deaths from heart disease and stroke fall, while several others have also seen early cancer deaths decrease.

The figures, contained in new health profiles for 2012, will now be used by NHS trusts, councils, police and other organisations to target priorities which will improve health and reduce the inequalities.

In Norfolk, priorities include stopping smoking, particularly in pregnancy, monitoring and preventing early deaths from cancer, and reducing diabetes by promoting health lifestyles.

Suffolk needs to reduce early deaths, ensure children get the best start in life and support older people to remain independent, while Cambridgeshire should focus on partnership working to meet the needs of an ageing population and the long-term prevention of ill-health.

While the figures appear to show that where you live has an effect on your health, experts say that educational attainment is perhaps one of the key factors which shapes a person's health and life.

Lucy MacLeod, a consultant in public health with NHS Norfolk and Waveney, said: 'Education and attainment are key factors as that does have knock-on to health in terms of the kind of jobs that people get. People's health is very much determined by their housing, their income, their job, even their ability to read food labels.

'All that comes back to education and attainment which is why it's a key health indicator.'

Another concerning trend is a failure to reduce early deaths from cancer in Norwich, against a backdrop where this is decreasing across the country.

New priorities and initiatives will now start to be designed by the incoming clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), which take over the responsibility and purse strings for the majority of our health care from next April.

It is hoped that the new Health and Wellbeing Boards, also being established under the NHS reforms, will enable these groups to set health and wellbeing strategies, which will in turn set the local framework for the commissioning of health care, social care and public health.

Mrs MacLeod said: 'We are always monitoring figures as we have our own health intelligence teams looking very closely at trends and keeping an eye on what is changing.

'We will now be feeding back this information to the CCGs and finding out what they think of the trends and how these issues could be addressed.'