The report, published last week, highlighted that a child born in aGlasgow suburb can live 28 years less than one living only 13km away. Itsaid health problems such as obesity, heart disease and mental healthproblems have their roots in the early years of life, and that 200million children worldwide are not achieving their developmentpotential.
The study, Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Actionon the Social Determinants of Health, said, 'If Governments in rich andpoor societies acted while children are young by implementing qualityearly years development programmes and services as part of broaderdevelopment plans, the investments would pay for themselves many timesover.'
It criticised policymakers for discounting the future benefits of earlychildhood development programmes and focusing 'disproportionately' onshort-term benefits.
The report argued that governments need to focus on children's social,emotional, language and cognitive development, rather than just physicalsurvival, and called for 'commitment, leadership and policycoherence'.
The Commission, a group of policymakers, academics and former ministersof health, said social environments, rather than biology, were to blamefor the huge differences in health and life expectancy seen in rich andpoor countries worldwide. The Commission said, 'The toxic combination ofbad policies, economics, and politics, is in large measure responsiblefor the fact that a majority of people in the world do not enjoy thegood health that is biologically possible. Social injustice is killingpeople on a grand scale.'
A separate study, by the Campaign to End Child Poverty, said childrenfrom poor families are ten times more at risk of cot death than thosefrom wealthier families, and more prone to chronic illness.
The report, Intergenerational Links between Child Poverty and PoorHealth in the UK, highlights the impact of the 'poverty health cycle' onfoetal development, early infancy, health throughout childhood and intoadult life.
Campaign to End Child Poverty director Hilary Fisher said, 'From the daythey are born, children's health and very survival are threatened byfamily poverty. Children in the poorest UK families are at least twiceas likely to die unexpectedly before their first birthdays than childrenin slightly better-off families. This is a huge injustice for the 3.9million disadvantaged children living in one of the richest nations inthe world. The Government needs to do more to end what is one ofsociety's greatest and most outrageous inequalities.'
www.endchildpoverty.org.uk
www.who.int.