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Child Poverty and Income, End Child Poverty 2007
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Health of children in poverty a timebomb waiting to go off - 27th of Aug, 2008
Ill health is one of the worst effects that poverty can have on a child’s life in the UK, with the risk of sudden infant death being ten times greater than children from better-off families, warns the Campaign to End Child Poverty in a new report.
The report reveals how children from disadvantaged families are more likely to be born underweight and weigh, on average, 200g less than babies in the richest families. Equally disturbing, children living in poorer families are also two and a half times as likely to suffer chronic illness as toddlers and twice as likely to have cerebral palsy.
It highlights the impact of poverty on foetal development, early infancy, health throughout childhood and into adult life, in what is known as the ‘poverty health cycle’.
Professor Nick Spencer, one of the report authors and professor of Child Health at the University of Warwick, said:
“Poverty is now one of the greatest dangers faced by our children. If poverty were an infection then we would be in the midst of a full-scale epidemic with all the attendant public health measures, including vaccination.
“Acute illnesses are more likely to affect poor children and they are more likely to experience hospital admission which, in turn, is placing an unnecessary amount of strain on health services.”
Other key facts from the report, include:
- Children living in disadvantaged families are over three times as likely to suffer from mental health disorders as those in well-off families; - Children under three years old, in families with an income less than £10,400, are twice as likely to suffer from asthma as those on over £52,000. Such inequalities account for 47% of children with asthma; - Adults who suffered from poverty as children are 50% more likely to have limiting illnesses, such as type two diabetes and heart failure.
Co-author Donald Hirsch said:
“From the day they are born, children’s health and very survival are threatened by family poverty. It is one of society’s greatest inequalities that poor health is so dramatically linked to poverty. Children in the poorest UK families are at least twice as likely to die unexpectedly before their first birthdays than children in slightly better off families. This is a huge injustice for the children in one of the richest nations in the world.”
Hilary Fisher, director for the Campaign to End Child Poverty, said:
“This evidence has profound implications for public policy. The facts prove that effective action to end child poverty would make a vital long-term contribution to improving the health of our nation and prevent avoidable incidences of physical and mental ill health.
“The Government made a bold promise to halve child poverty by 2010 and this now requires bold action.”
End Child Poverty is now appealing for all health and social care professionals to unite in putting pressure on the Government to keep its promise by attending the largest ever rally to end child poverty. The ‘Keep the Promise’ event will be held at Trafalgar Square and will see thousands of people uniting to demand the Government keeps its promise to halve child poverty by 2010.
Dr Patricia Hamilton, president of coalition member Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said:
“We strongly support the recommendations in this stark briefing - but regret that it is still necessary to draw attention to these issues.
"Health inequalities in childhood lead to health inequalities in adulthood, and ill health in children and young people is directly related to levels of poverty.
"The Government must fulfil its promise to break the ongoing cycle of deprivation by lifting families out of the poverty that condemns their children and their children’s children to ill health.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
- The Campaign to End Child Poverty is a coalition of more than 130 organisations working to eradicate child poverty in the UK. It is formed from children's and other charities, social justice groups, faith-groups, trade unions and others concerned about the unacceptably high levels of child poverty in the UK. For more information, visit www.endchildpoverty.org.uk
- For more information about the Keep the Promise rally in Trafalgar Square on 4th October – the largest ever event to end child poverty – visit www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/promise
- Today’s report, available in two chapters -‘Health Consequences of Poverty for Children’ and ‘Child Poverty and Adult Health’, was authored by Professor Nick Spencer from the University of Warwick. Both chapters are available online.
- A separate summary briefing - ‘Unhealthy Lives; Intergenerational Links between Child Poverty and Poor Health in the UK’ was authored by Donald Hirsch and Professor Nick Spencer and is available as a hard copy and online resource.
- The comments in this release represent the views of End Child Poverty and do not necessarily reflect the views of member organisations.
- In March 1999 Tony Blair promised to eradicate child poverty ‘within a generation’. This has been defined as by 2020, with targets towards this of reducing child income poverty by a quarter between 1998/99 and 2004/05, and by half by 2010/11.
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