More than 6,000 fewer children would have died between 2003 and 2012 if England’s rate had been the same as Sweden’s, researchers said

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Deaths in children under five occur 50% more often in England than in Sweden, a study has found.

If the child mortality rate had been the same in England as in Sweden during the 10-year period analysed, more than 600 fewer children would have died per year, researchers said.

The UK has one of the highest child mortality rates in western Europe, because although it has a similar level of economic development and healthcare to Sweden, the UK’s more unequal wealth distribution leads to poorer maternal health during pregnancy.

This causes more babies to be born prematurely and with a low birth weight, researchers from the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health said. Children born in England also tend to have more birth anomalies – such as congenital heart defects – than in Sweden.

The study, published in the Lancet, used medical data from the NHS and the Swedish health service to compare births from 2003 to 2012 and track the children’s health and death records up to their fifth birthday.

These records included information on the mother’s age, the family’s socioeconomic position, the length of pregnancy, the child’s birth weight and gender, and whether the child had any birth anomalies.

Overall, the study included more than 3.9 million English births, with 11,392 deaths, and more than a million Swedish births and 1,927 deaths.

Between two days and four years old, the child mortality rate for England was one and a half times higher than for Sweden (29 deaths per 10,000 children in England, compared with 19 in Sweden). If the child mortality rate had been the same, there would have been 607 fewer child deaths per year in England, equivalent to 6,073 in total over the period.

The differences were mainly driven by differences in mortality among children under one.

Lead author Dr Ania Zylbersztejn of UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health said: “While child deaths are still rare, the UK has one of the highest child mortality rates in western Europe.

“Babies born prematurely or with low birth weight have an increased risk of early death, and those who survive are more likely to have chronic ill-health or disability.”

The higher frequency of adverse birth characteristics such as low birth weight, pre-term birth or congenital anomalies in England were the main reasons for the excess risk of death compared to Sweden, accounting for 77% of the excess risk for newborns and 68% for those under the age of one.

Socioeconomic factors explained a further 3% of excess risk in newborns, and 11% in those under the age of one. Combined, they said, these factors fully explained the difference in survival for under-fives in England and Sweden.

Good maternal health – including maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding chronic illnesses such as diabetes and avoiding high blood pressure, psychological stress and infections – and healthy behaviours such as eating a balanced diet and avoiding smoking, drugs and alcohol are associated with healthy foetal development during pregnancy.

Four out of five full-term baby deaths in UK could be prevented, says study Read more

The UK has one of the most unequal distributions of wealth of all western countries. From 2003 to 2005, the most deprived 20% of the UK’s population had a sevenfold lower income than the least deprived 20%, while the gap in Sweden was only four times.

This suggests many more people in England are socioeconomically disadvantaged, which is associated with pre-term births, low birth weight, birth anomalies and poor maternal health, reflecting circumstances and behaviours linked to poverty and stress.

Prof Anders Hjern of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said: “This study shows that the main explanations for the differences in child mortality rates between England and Sweden are systemic, and beyond the reach of healthcare services alone.

“The key factors here are likely to include Sweden’s broader welfare programmes that have provided families with an economic safety net for over 50 years, the free and accessible educational system, including early childcare, and public health policies for many lifestyle issues such as obesity, smoking and alcohol use.”

