Health inequality ‘holds back vulnerable children’

Children’s ability to reach their full potential could be jeopardised as health inequality between the rich and poor in Europe and North America deepens, experts have warned.

Research by St Andrews University shows that prospects for the most vulnerable young people are declining.

Social disparity in childhood and adolescence is a ticking time bomb and its impact on adult health is being overlooked with potentially devastating consequences say experts.

St Andrews-based professor Candace Currie said: “Adolescents growing up in high income countries are typically considered to be in good health, which may explain why they are often overlooked in health policy.

“However, while many experience excellent health, this resource for life is not evenly distributed across the population. Young people from poorer family backgrounds, poorer countries and more economically unequal societies in Europe and North America fare worse than their peers across a wide range of physical and mental health indicators.”

Professor Currie co-wrote the paper published online in the Lancet yesterday with Professor Frank Elgar from McGill University in Montreal.