Worsening health of British children because of poverty and obesity ‘is a wake-up call’
IMPROVEMENTS to children’s health in the UK have “stalled” and are going backwards in some areas, a major review finds, as experts blame obesity, child poverty and other factors.
The report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) concludes that Britain is at risk of lagging behind comparable European countries.
In England, breastfeeding rates are at the lowest level since 2009, with 42.7 per cent of mothers breastfeeding when their child is six weeks old, the survey found.
Meanwhile, death rates of children who are less than a year old have stalled in England and the UK generally since 2014.
Experts have also said that a very slight rise in infant mortality noticed in 2016-17 in England is “extremely unusual and should be a cause for concern”.
The drop in the uptake of vaccinations is also contributing towards the worrying child health picture.
Between 2014 and 2018, there are
“signs of decline” in vaccination rates for the six-in-one vaccination and MMR.
The report cites cuts to child services, increasing obesity levels and poor access to mental health as factors driving the overall trends.
Both inoculations are given during the routine childhood vaccination programme and protect children against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, hepatitis B, haemophilus influenzae type b, polio, tetanus and whooping cough.
Dr Ronny Cheung, clinical lead for RCPCH and co-author of the report, said: “The harsh reality is that, in terms of health and well-being, children born in the UK are often worse off than those born in other comparably wealthy countries. This is especially true if the child is from a less well-off background.
“Infant mortality is a globally recognised sign of how well a country is looking after the health of its citizens. Yet UK infant mortality rates have stalled, and in England, they actually got worse between 2016 and 2017. For a high-income nation such as ours, that should be a major wake-up call.”