Understanding excess child and adolescent mortality in the UK
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding excess child and adolescent mortality in the United Kingdom compared with EU15+ countries
IRAS ID
238618
Contact name
Joseph Ward
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Division of Research and Innovation, UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2017/08/80, UCL Data Protection Registration Number
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 1 months, 1 days
Research summary
Previous studies have demonstrated that the rate at which children die in the United Kingdom is higher than in many other developed countries. I will investigate why this occurs, and thus inform policies to improve UK child survival.
I will establish an up to date picture of child mortality compared with similar wealthy nations, and then investigate where the UK performs badly. The comparator group I will use is the EU15+ - (the countries of the EU before 2004 plus Canada, Australia and Norway). My project will concentrate on causes of death after the newborn period, where the UK performs poorly but about which little is known.
I will then investigate mortality rates for specific non-communicable diseases (NCD), such as asthma, diabetes and cancer, where many outcomes in the UK are worse than in other wealthy nations, to identify which contribute to the high rates of child mortality in the UK. Because many of these conditions affect teenagers and young adults, the project will focus on deaths in young people to age 24 years as well as in younger children.
I will then examine where in the UK children and young people are more likely to die, and whether some of the high death rates are due to high levels of poverty, social exclusion, and other markers of deprivation which are known to affect child health.
Finally, I will explore whether access to and use of health care services such as outpatient clinics, attendances to Accident and Emergency departments, and rates of missed appointments prior to death, and the way these vary across England, may be related to greater risk of dying.
REC name
London - Brent Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/1267
Date of REC Opinion
17 Aug 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion