ABSTRACT
Child health is important not only for a child’s current situation, but also for their long-term health and life outcome. The rate of child poverty in the UK in 2016 was 12%. The need to address this was recognised by the UK government, who published the Every Child Matters green paper in 2003. This outlined plans to help every child have the support they need to achieve 5 key outcomes: be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic well-being. Deprivation is an unequal variation in the social determinants of child health. Changing child health outcomes requires an understanding of why this variation in the social determinants of child health exists. This may involve material, behavioural and psychosocial factors, but is often ultimately dependent on structural social determinants of health.
This chapter explores further:
The relevance of child health measures and how they relate to disadvantage.
The factors that cause inequality in child health.
The interventions that can help to reduce these inequalities.
