THE UK has one of the highest rates of death for children under five in Western Europe, according to new research published in The Lancet.
In 2013, the mortality rate for under-fives in the UK was 4.9 deaths per 1,000 – more than double the rate of 2.4 per 1,000 in Iceland, the country with the lowest rate. Poverty and smoking in pregnancy are two of many factors cited by experts.
The analysis of data on 188 countries was carried out by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
It showed that the UK had worse rates than nearly every other western European nation for early neonatal deaths – between zero and six days, post-neonatal deaths (death between 29 and 364 days), and for childhood deaths (death between one and four years).
The UK’s rate is comparable with Serbia and Poland, but worse than Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands and Switzerland, which had rates between 4 and 4.6 deaths per 1,000 children aged under five.
Dr Ingrid Wolfe of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which itself recently analysed the UK’s child mortality rate, said: ‘We’ve known for some time that the UK has high child mortality rates compared to some of the best performing countries in Europe – but these latest figures put us rock bottom of the Western European league table even compared to the European average, let alone the top performing countries.
‘Over a third of all child deaths in the UK are in under-fives, so we need to think seriously about how we can prevent these. Britain is one of the most unequal societies in Western Europe – and it’s no coincidence that our child mortality rate is also the worst.’
Dr Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the lead author of the study, said: ‘We were surprised by these findings because the UK has made so many significant advances in public health over the years.
‘The higher-than-expected child death rates in the UK are a reminder to all of us that, even as we are seeing child mortality decline worldwide, countries need to examine what they are doing to make sure more children grow into adulthood.’
Across the world, child deaths rates have been falling since 1990, but in the UK the rate has slowed, and the decline in 2000-2013 was half that seen between 1990 and 2000. Andy Cole, chief executive of premature baby charity Bliss, said, ‘It remains an appalling reality that babies and children in the UK still have a significantly greater chance of dying than those in Western Europe.’
He warned of ‘a substantial gap before we reach safe staffing levels in all neonatal and maternity services throughout the UK’.
Royal College of Midwives’ Director for Midwifery Louise Silverton said: ‘We welcome this research but are surprised and shocked by its findings.’
She added: ‘We, too, are concerned about the poor organisation of maternity and children’s health services in the UK. We desperately need more midwives in England and are campaigning for 4,800 more.
‘It is a false economy to cut back on midwives because we are playing Russian roulette with our next generation’s future health.’
