Inequalities in child health outcomes

Socioeconomic inequalities in adverse child health outcomes: results from the Oxford Record Linkage Study

The objective of this study was to examine the association between social class of the head of household at the time of birth and adverse child health outcomes during the first 10 years of life in a cohort of all 117,212 children born to women who both lived and delivered in hospital in Oxfordshire or West Berkshire during the period 1st January 1979–31st December 1988. Logistic regression was used to estimate social class gradients, with odds ratios, for mortality during the early neonatal period, late neonatal period, post-neonatal period, post infancy period and throughout the first 10 years of life. Logistic regression was also used to estimate social class gradients, with odds ratios, for hospital admission rates for 16 broad groups of diseases during years 0–3, 4–6, 7–10 and throughout the first 10 years of life. Poisson regression was used to estimate social class gradients, with effect sizes, for overall hospital admission rates during years 0–3, 4–6, 7–10 and throughout the first 10 years of life. Associations between the social class of the head of household and hospital inpatient service utilisation and costs during the first 10 years of life were analysed using multi-level multiple regression modelling. The results of this research were reported in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (July 2005) and Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology (January 2006).