Poor children twice as likely to die by 15

Children from poorer backgrounds are twice as likely to die before the age of 15 as those from affluent homes, a shock new study revealed today.

A new all-island alliance shows factors linked to a person’s economic background can put their lives at greater risk.

Children in low-income homes are more likely to be born small with low birth rates, leaving them with poorer health in later life and reduced life expectancy, according to the first study by the Public Health Alliance.

The rate of low birth weights was higher in Belfast than Dublin, but both lagged behind Scandinavian countries.

Dr Thomas Quigley, co-chair of the alliance, said the study – entitled Health Inequalities on the Island of Ireland: The Facts, the Causes, the Remedies - found poor health experiences in childhood, even before birth, were leaving lifelong scars.

It found people who are poor and socially excluded more likely to die at a younger age and experience a higher rate of ill health.

“Given the evidence of the impact of inequality on the health of the population it is clear that in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland any attempt to improve health and address inequalities in health, must be rooted in social justice, resulting in a fairer distribution of wealth, as well as provision of appropriate, accessible services provided on the basis of need and not ability to pay,” Dr Quigley said.

He said the alliance was calling for an end to child poverty and the development of an equitable tax and welfare system to reduce the income gap.

Another move being pushed by the group is the provision of a universal health service, providing care on the basis of need rather than ability to pay.

The study, compiled from a range of reports, states: “In the Republic of Ireland, the health system is fundamentally unequal, allowing those who can afford private care to get more rapid access to a better service.”

Jillian van Turnhout, chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance, warned of the urgent need for health care to be provided to all children living in low-income families.

“One in nine children in Ireland are living in poverty, the government had committed to ending child poverty by 2007. We are now in 2007 and our figures have increased for child poverty, so we would be greatly concerned not enough action is being taken to eradicate child poverty in Ireland,” she said.

“We want full free health care for all children living in low income families.”

Throughout the island the proportion of untreated dental problems was higher among children from disadvantaged areas.

The rates of mental ill-health and suicide were detected as significantly higher in economically deprived areas, while those in lower socio-economic groups have a higher incidence of cancer and poorer survival rates compared with more affluent sectors.

The alliance, which is made up of individuals and groups drawn from all sectors relating to public health, found Irish men have the lowest life expectancy of all the European Union States.

Men from the lowest socio-economic groups in the North live an average of six-years less than those from wealthier backgrounds.

Death rates among people in the lowest occupational class was up to 200% higher than the rate for the highest.

Among those in the lower work classes, the death rate for circulatory diseases was 120% higher, for cancers 100% higher, for respiratory disease 200% higher and for injury or poison-related deaths, over 150% higher.

In the North, the death rate from murder or assault was 225% higher in lower socio-economic groups than the highest. Women in the Republic have almost twice the rate of death from heart disease as the European Union average.