Ward, JL;
Viner, RM;
(2017)
The impact of income inequality and national wealth on child and adolescent mortality in low and middle-income countries.
BMC Public Health
, 17
, Article 429. 10.1186/s12889-017-4310-z.
Preview |
Text
s12889-017-4310-z.pdf - Published Version Download (596kB) | Preview |
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Income inequality and national wealth are strong determinants for health, but few studies have systematically investigated their influence on mortality across the early life-course, particularly outside the high-income world. METHODS: We performed cross-sectional regression analyses of the relationship between income inequality (national Gini coefficient) and national wealth (Gross Domestic Product (GDP) averaged over previous decade), and all-cause and grouped cause national mortality rate amongst infants, 1–4, 5–9, 10–14, 15–19 and 20–24 year olds in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) in 2012. Gini models were adjusted for GDP. RESULTS: Data were available for 103 (79%) countries. Gini was positively associated with increased all-cause and communicable disease mortality in both sexes across all age groups, after adjusting for national wealth. Gini was only positively associated with increased injury mortality amongst infants and 20–24 year olds, and increased non-communicable disease mortality amongst 20–24 year old females. The strength of these associations tended to increase during adolescence. Increasing GDP was negatively associated with all-cause, communicable and non-communicable disease mortality in males and females across all age groups. GDP was also associated with decreased injury mortality in all age groups except 15–19 year old females, and 15–24 year old males. GDP became a weaker predictor of mortality during adolescence. CONCLUSION: Policies to reduce income inequality, rather than prioritising economic growth at all costs, may be needed to improve adolescent mortality in low and middle-income countries, a key development priority.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The impact of income inequality and national wealth on child and adolescent mortality in low and middle-income countries |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s12889-017-4310-z |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4310-z |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s). 2017 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated |
| Keywords: | Income inequality, Child and adolescent health, Low and middle-income countries, PSYCHOSOCIAL ENVIRONMENT, INFANT-MORTALITY, LIFE EXPECTANCY, HEALTH, BURDEN, RATES, AGE |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1560134 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
