Infant death risk greater for our ethnic minorities

When I was a practising doctor in Bristol, I learned of an amazing database on children called the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children where children registered at birth were tracked until they’re 18.

This unique source of data informs much of our thinking on children’s health and wellbeing. Quite often it uncovers trends in childhood diseases that would otherwise remain hidden.

Another unique source of data on all children who die in England before their 18th birthday, the Bristol’s National Child Mortality Database has revealed a shocking situation that’s affecting infant deaths in England.

I was appalled to find out that 12% of infant deaths in England could be avoided if they all had the same risk of death as white infants.

A new University of Bristol-led study shows that if this could happen, more than 200 deaths per year would be saved and this would bring England – which currently has one of the highest infant mortality rates in Europe – in line with other EU nations.

The study is the latest analysis that builds on previous work to spotlight the outcomes of children of different ethnicities.

It shows that babies of non-white ethnicities are at greater risk than their white counterparts, and this isn’t explained by where they live, so it’s independent of environment, or how wealthy their families are, meaning it is also independent of social background too.

Almost half of the additional risk for non-white infants is due to preterm birth, which is much more common in families of Asian or Black ethnicity.

So if you drill down into some of these stats it becomes evident the root cause is the poor care of Black and Asian women in pregnancy.

Mothers from Black ethnic backgrounds are four times more likely to die during, or up to six weeks after pregnancy compared to white women.

The death rate among women from Asian backgrounds is twice that of white women.

The Bristol authors have stressed the urgent need to tackle this issue and identify the next steps for reducing the rate of preterm birth in these communities.

Karen Luyt of Bristol University said: “England has one of the highest infant mortality rates in Europe, and there is an urgent need to identify and tackle the factors that are holding us back.

“This latest analysis of our unique dataset highlights specific groups at greater risk, and gives a clear indication of where efforts might be focused to drive down infant mortality in the future.”

I fervently hope this happens.

‘‘It is higher due to preterm birth rate in Black and Asian children