Growing up in Britain: ensuring a healthy future for our children
June 1999
The relative inequalities in the health of our children are increasing. This BMA report examines the evidence of the effectiveness of certain interventions to improve health inequality and considers the lessons that can be learnt and how they can be applied.
Specific topics covered include nutrition, abuse and injury, disability and emotional and behavioural problems. The report was followed by a national conference on 23 September 1999, chaired by Dr James Appleyard, Working Party Chairman, at the Royal College of Physicians, London.
Introduction
The report report focuses specifically on the child, from conception to age 5 and on the impact of social and economic inequality on child health. It will be essential reading for doctors and all healthcare professionals working with children, including health visitors and other members of the primary healthcare team. Policy makers and workers involved in the health, education, social and voluntary sectors will also find it a valuable reference.
For the purpose of the report ‘health’ is defined as not simply the absence of ill health and disease but in a wider sense of developing a sense of ‘well-being’, physically, emotionally, intellectually, psychologically and spiritually.
Chapter Two gives a brief overview of the key issues in child health today and Chapter Three draws on the evidence of inequalities which are clearly apparent in child health within the UK at present. It also considers evidence regarding efficacy of interventions, in order that strategies can be employed to improve current and future health of children.
Clearly the report cannot deal with all child health issues in depth, but a number of key issues were identified to illustrate inequity in child health, highlight the efficacy of certain interventions and point to the need for a total rather than service-orientated approach in addressing inequity and poor health and well-being in the early years of life.
The report will therefore consider issues relating to childhood nutrition (Chapter Four), abuse and non-accidental injury (Chapter Five), disability (Chapter Six), and mental health/behavioural problems (Chapter Seven).
Chapter Eight considers the origins of adult disease and how this may be programmed in utero and early childhood. Chapter Nine draws conclusions and presents a broad range of recommendations for actions that need to be taken, primarily outside of the National Health Service, if the UK is to provide an environment in which children are nurtured and their health in the early years of life recognised as key to the future health and well-being of the country.
This BMA policy report will be a valuable resource for doctors and all health care professionals working with children such as health visitors, members of the primary health care team and paediatricians. Policy makers and workers involved in the health, education, social and voluntary sectors will also find this report a useful reference point in their work.