Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

Professor Mitch Blair

Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health

Emeritus Professor
 
 
 
//

Contact

 

+44 (0)20 8869 3881m.blair Website

 
 
//

Location

 

River Island Academic Centre for Paediatrics and Child HealthNorthwick ParkNorthwick Park and St Marks Site

//

Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Rigby:2020:eurpub/ckaa052,
author = {Rigby, M and Deshpande, S and Blair, M},
doi = {eurpub/ckaa052},
journal = {European Journal of Public Health},
pages = {693--697},
title = {Child health research and planning in Europe disadvantaged by major gaps and disparities in published statistics},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaa052},
volume = {30},
year = {2020}
}
Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BackgroundPopulation data, such as mortality and morbidity statistics, are essential for many reasons, including giving context for research, supporting action on health determinants, formulation of evidence-based policy for health care and outcome evaluation. However, when considering children, it is difficult to find such data, despite children comprising one-fifth of the European population and being in a key formative life stage and dependent on societal support. Moreover, it would be expected that there should be confidence in the key child health data available, with little to no discrepancy between recognized health statistic databases.MethodsThis study explored the main health databases in or including Europe to collate child mortality data, for both all-cause and specific-cause mortality. Tables were constructed for comparison of values and rankings.ResultsThe results show that there are major differences in reported mortality data between two prominent health statistic databases, difference in coding systems, and unannounced changes within one of the databases.ConclusionsThe lack of health data for children seems compounded by challenges to the trust and credibility, which are vital if these data are to have utility. Children and society are the losers, and resolution is needed as a priority.
AU  - Rigby,M
AU  - Deshpande,S
AU  - Blair,M
DO  - eurpub/ckaa052
EP  - 697
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 1101-1262
SP  - 693
TI  - Child health research and planning in Europe disadvantaged by major gaps and disparities in published statistics
T2  - European Journal of Public Health
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaa052
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/78002
VL  - 30
ER  -
Download