WOMEN in Bolton live five years longer than men, according to new research.

Men in the town can expect to live until they are 74 years old - 18 months less than the national average.

Women are expected to live until they are 79, one year less than the average.

The findings are the result of research carried out by Bolton Primary Care Trust and come as the Bolton Evening News Stub It Out campaign grows in strength.

And the trust says helping people to stop smoking is its number one priority in its drive to improve the health of the town.

Bolton has higher-than-average death rates from heart disease, lung cancer and strokes.

All are associated with smoking, poor diet, a lack of exercise and lack of access to high-quality healthcare.

Bolton's smoking rates are five per cent higher than the national average, with 29 per cent of residents smoking. In areas such as Hall i'th' Wood, 65 per cent of residents smoke.

The trust discovered that the health of some of the town's residents is worsening, with poorer neighbourhoods in the borough falling further behind more prosperous areas.

Deprivation in central Bolton, Daubhill, Farnworth, Great Lever and Halliwell is said to have strong links to poor health.

The research found that heart disease and circulatory problems such as strokes in central and south-east Bolton, are 25 per cent higher than the national average

In Farnworth, it found that the premature death rate from heart disease is four times higher that of the more affluent Bromley Cross, and one-in-four residents in central Bolton reported visiting a GP six or more times last year, compared to one in eight residents in Horwich.

The primary care trust has now unveiled a strategy to raise the quality of life in the town's deprived areas.

It will aim to improve health through promoting better diets, more exercise and less smoking.

Director of public health Jan Hutchinson said the gap between the prosperous and poorer areas of the town was widening.

"Work needs to be done in local communities to address this. Some areas of Great Lever and Halliwell suffer from extreme deprivation, being among the worst one per cent in the country," she said.

"We need to support families more to break the health inequality cycle, engage communities, prevent illness and provide effective treatment.

"Our number one priority is smoking cessation and tobacco control. We need to encourage the Government to help us introduce a ban on smoking in the workplace."

She said targeting children before they were even born was the key to breaking the cycle.

Reinforcing health education for women before their children were born and then supporting them by encouraging healthy nutrition for their children throughout their lives was part of the strategy.

Dr Hamilton said: "It is not enough to visit schools and give children fruit every day to encourage a healthy diet.

"Children need aspirations to get a good career and break out of the poverty trap. They need to be employed because research has shown that employed people are healthier."