Socioeconomic inequities in children’s physical health

18/04/2024

The development of good physical health in childhood begins from birth.

Inequities, such as a family’s economic situation, can affect children’s physical health now and into the future. These inequities are unfair and preventable. Children who experience socioeconomic disadvantage have a higher risk of physical health problems. Addressing challenges in the early years is critical for optimising children’s physical health.

The equity gap can widen due to experiences of severe adversity, including abuse, neglect and family challenges in childhood. This is due to the challenging conditions faced by their families, not because of any inherent vulnerability or deficit. In turn, children that experience adversities are more likely to experience problems with childhood obesity and chronic inflammation, which increases their risk of developing health conditions such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes later in life. Some children, including those from families experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage, are more likely to face multiple adversities, and so have an increased risk of these health conditions. 

A new research paper from Professor Naomi Priest and the Changing Children’s Chances team has demonstrated that decreasing childhood adversity among children experiencing disadvantage can help to address inequities in childhood obesity and chronic inflammation. To make more significant change, however, the study highlights the need to directly address broader socioeconomic conditions.

Ultimately, we can improve children’s physical health by focusing on prevention both in the family environment and wider society. Policy efforts are likely to have a bigger effect if protective factors that decrease the risk of experiencing adversity are also addressed, such as maternal education and family socioeconomic resources. Whether this takes the form of investment in girls’ education or providing support for educational attainment by mothers, we know that to make the biggest impact on children’s physical health we need to address the environments that shape experiences.

Read the paper in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.