16 February 2007
Babies born in poor parts of England or to parents from ethnic minorities are up to seven times as likely to die before the age of one as those born in the richest areas, a government review has found.
The Department of Health's Review of health inequalities: infant mortality, published on February 7, found that the gap between the infant mortality rate for the general population and that for the poorest social classes has widened by six percentile points since 1999 to 19%.
The infant mortality rate in the general population was 4.9 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2004, but for infants born to parents in low-paid, manual and routine jobs, it was 5.9 per 1,000 live births. This makes it unlikely that the government will achieve its Public Service Agreement to reduce inequalities between the two groups by 10% by 2010.
Between 2002 and 2004, 9,132 infants under the age of one died, and the review confirmed that a disproportionate number of these – 40% - were born to low-income families.
There was also regional disparity – related to poverty. Boston in Lincolnshire and Birmingham had the highest levels of infant mortality at 11.9 and 9.8 per 1,000 live births respectively, while Eastleigh in Hampshire had the lowest at 1.6 per 1000, a seventh of the rate in Boston.
Babies born to single or teenage mothers, or those from Pakistan and the Caribbean, were up to twice as likely to die before the age of one as the general population with as many as two deaths per 100 live births.
The review was commissioned by ministers concerned with a lack of progress on the PSA target.
Writing in the foreword, care minister Ivan Lewis and public health minister Caroline Flint said: 'We set up the review because we were concerned that while the infant mortality rate in England is at an all-time low, the gap between different social groups remains. There is more we can do to reduce infant mortality and narrow the health inequalities gap.'
But the review found that even in the 43 councils with the highest levels of infant mortality and inequality, there was 'no recognition of the target or the widening gap'.
Poor data collection meant there was a lack of information about which interventions worked and those services that were in existence were not adequately targeted to the most needy.
The report identified that reductions in obesity, smoking, teenage pregnancy and bed-sharing could reduce the mortality gap by up to 7%, but 'this alone does not provide a solution to achieving the [10% reduction] target'.
A new, targeted strategy will be published later this year by the Department of Health.
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