WOMEN in Kenley face a higher risk of dying due to kidney disease than those in other Croydon wards, new research suggests.
Those in Fieldway and Heathfield also face a higher than average risk of lung cancer, the analysis shows.
Researchers at Imperial College London have created an online atlas showing the relative risk of various diseases for men and women in 8,800 wards in England and Wales.
They looked at geographical disease patterns spanning 25 years back from 2009, adjusting their findings for deprivation, age, and possible chance fluctuations where the numbers were small.
The researchers also mapped environmental factors such as pesticides and sunshine, but stressed any correlation did not prove those factors caused a disease.
Lead author Dr Anna Hansell, from the Small Area Health Statistics Unit in Imperial College London's School of Public Health, said: "It is the first publication in the UK to amalgamate data at this level of resolution on health and environment.
"It connects people to health and environment at a neighbourhood level and provides resources to learn about these issues.
"It also allows us to identify the important questions that need answering about patterns of health and environmental risk for future avenues of research."
The researchers stressed their findings cannot determine an individual's chances of getting a disease.
Nor should they be used to decide where to live.
Among the 12 conditions mapped are skin cancer, breast cancer, stillbirths and prostate cancer.
The research shows a higher than average risk of stillbirths in Norbury, in the north of the borough, and Purley in the south.
Shirley, meanwhile, has a below average risk of breast cancer while all other wards have an average risk compared to the rest of the country.
For men, most wards in Croydon have above average risks of kidney disease mortality, while Bensham Manor has the lowest risk of lung cancer.
Most wards in Croydon have an average risk of prostate cancer mortality, while Coulsdon West has a slightly above average risk of skin cancer. The atlas does not look at the possible reasons behind the higher risk other than to note some of the causes such as smoking.
