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Reducing child health inequality
Health inequalities are defined as the gap in outcomes between different groups in society. Hargreaves and colleagues investigate trends in health inequality among children and young people in England using data from health surveys over the last decade. Four outcomes were considered; self/parent reported general health, presence of a longstanding illness, obesity and smoking. Changes in the absolute and relative risks of the four outcomes were considered using occupation of the head of household as a marker of socio-economic status. No indicator showed a reduction in relative or absolute health inequality between 1999 and 2009. All four outcomes showed an increase in inequality at some point during the period. The findings are disappointing and challenging. The challenge of reducing child health inequality is discussed in detail by the authors and in an accompanying editorial by Nick Spencer—Reducing Child Health Inequalities; what's the problem? See pages 850 and 836
Weaning tube feeds
Many children with chronic conditions require tube feeding, often started infancy with obvious benefit in terms of nutrition, growth and development. The long term switch to oral feeding (where possible) is not always straightforward. Many children develop oral aversion. Wilken and colleagues report their experience of …
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