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Cause-specific child and adolescent mortality in the UK and EU15+ countries
Joseph Lloyd Ward1, Ingrid Wolfe2, Russell M Viner3
1Population, Policy and Practice Research and Teaching Department, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, UK joseph.ward@ucl.ac.uk.
Insights
UK children and young people (CYP) face higher mortality rates from common infections and non-communicable diseases compared to EU15+ nations. Addressing these disparities may require strengthening healthcare systems.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Public Health
- Comparative Mortality Analysis
Background:
- Child and young person (CYP) mortality rates vary significantly across high-income countries.
- Understanding cause-specific mortality differences is crucial for targeted public health interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare cause-specific mortality in UK children and young people (CYP) with EU15+ countries.
- To identify areas where UK CYP mortality exceeds international benchmarks.
Main Methods:
- Utilized WHO World Mortality Database for mortality estimates (2015 or latest).
- Mapped causes of death using Global Burden of Disease hierarchy into 22 groups.
- Employed Poisson regression to compare UK vs. EU15+ mortality rates by cause, age, and sex, ranking the UK.
Main Results:
- UK CYP mortality was higher for common infections, chronic respiratory conditions, and certain non-communicable diseases (NCDs) compared to EU15+.
- The UK ranked poorly for common infections and several NCDs across age groups and sexes.
- Lower UK mortality was observed for transport injuries in adolescent males.
Conclusions:
- UK CYP experience elevated mortality from common infections and multiple NCDs relative to comparable nations.
- These excess deaths suggest potential for improvement through health system strengthening.
Objective:
To compare cause-specific UK mortality in children and young people (CYP) with EU15+ countries (European Union countries pre-2004, Australia, Canada and Norway).
Design:
Mortality estimates were coded from the WHO World Mortality Database. Causes of death were mapped using the Global Burden of Disease mortality hierarchy to 22 cause groups. We compared UK mortality by cause, age group and sex with EU15+ countries in 2015 (or latest available) using Poisson regression models. We then ranked the UK compared with the EU15+ for each cause.
Setting:
The UK and EU15+ countries.
Participants:
CYP aged 1-19.
Main Outcome Measure:
Mortality rate per 100 000 and number of deaths.
Results:
UK mortality in 2015 was significantly higher than the EU15+ for common infections (both sexes aged 1-9, boys aged 10-14 and girls aged 15-19); chronic respiratory conditions (both sexes aged 5-14); and digestive, neurological and diabetes/urological/blood/endocrine conditions (girls aged 15-19). UK mortality was significantly lower for transport injuries (boys aged 15-19). The UK had the worst to third worst mortality rank for common infections in both sexes and all age groups, and in five out of eight non-communicable disease (NCD) causes in both sexes in at least one age group. UK mortality rank for injuries in 2015 was in the top half of countries for most causes.
Conclusions:
UK CYP mortality is higher than a group of comparable countries for common infections and multiple NCD causes. Excess UK CYP mortality may be amenable to health system strengthening.
