Health equity through policy and practice in the early periods of a child's life
The early years of a child’s life are particularly important in determining not only future health, but also educational and lifelong success.
University College London (UCL) is leading two reviews in DRIVERS, one focusing on neighbourhood and household factors and their relationship to children's health, and the other on interventions and their effects on children's health.
UCL will then conduct data analyses, making use of cohort data from across Europe, to understand how socio-economic, behavioural and biological factors affect the development of children in the early stages of their lives.
Overall, the reviews and data analysis will increase our understanding of the effects of different factors on childhood health, the health outcomes of different types of interventions, and help develop solid policy recommendations to help promote health equity through early childhood development.
Objectives
- Systematic review of household and neighbourhood factors and their relationships to children's health.
- Systematic review of intervention data, concentrating on unequal or disadvantaged childhood development and health.
- Comparative data analysis using data from several EU member states.
- Further our understand of which factors in the early years of a child's life may have a bearing on child health.
- Identify means of reducing health inequalities through policy or practice concerning early child development.
News
The following papers have been published in scientific journals:
- Morrison, J., Pikhart, H., Ruiz, M., Goldblatt, P. (2014): Systematic review of parenting interventions in European countries aiming to reduce social inequalities in children's health and development. In: BMC Public Health, 14:1040. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-14-1040
- Pillas, D., Marmot, M., Naicker, K., Goldblatt , P., Morrison, J. & Pikhart, H. (2014): Social inequalities in early childhood health and development: a European-wide systematic review. In: Pediatric Research, 76(5), 418-424. DOI: 10.1038/pr.2014.122.
Ongoing activities
- An analysis has commenced on the cohort data from selected European countries.
- The following papers are under preparation:
- Milagros Ruiz, Peter Goldblatt, Joana Morrison, Michael Marmot, Hynek Pikhart - Maternal education and child health and behaviours: A European cross-cohort study
- Hynek Pikhart, Ngan T.K Nguyen, Joana Morrison - Multilevel determinants of asthma in children: Evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study.
