Family income and child health in the UK

Abstract

Recent studies examining the relationship between family income and child health in the UK have produced mixed findings. We re-examine the income gradient in child general health and its evolution with child age in this country, using a very large sample of British children. We find that there is no correlation between income and child general health at ages 0-1, that the gradient emerges around age 2 and remains constant from ages 2 to 17. In addition, we show that the gradient is likely to represent a causal effect of income on child health. Furthermore, we suggest that the gradient in general health reflects a greater prevalence of chronic conditions among low-income children and a greater severity of these conditions. Taken together, these results suggest that income does matter for child health in the UK and may play a role in the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status.JEL classification: I1

Socioeconomic status and children's health: Evidence from a low-income country

“…Other research from the UK indicate that SES gradients in health that are present in earlier childhood flatten or disappear in adolescence, as the effects of the secondary school, the peer group, and youth culture overshadow those of the family background (West, 1997;West and Sweeting, 2004). By contrast, the income gradient in child health is found to remain fairly constant throughout childhood and adolescence in the US (Chen et al, 2006), UK (Apouey and Geoffard, 2013;Currie et al, 2007;Propper et al, 2007) and Germany (Reinhold and Jürges, 2012).…”

Income-related children’s health inequality and health achievement in China

“…A large portion of the existing literature mainly focusing on developed counties shows that family income is positively related to children’s general health in the United States [11,12], United Kingdom [13], Canada [14], Germany [15], and Australia [16]. However, little is known about the relationship between family income and child health in most developing countries.…”

Community Household Income and Resource Utilization for Common Inpatient Pediatric Conditions

“…17,18,24,45 By extension, these findings should be of great interest to health systems seeking to be accountable care organizations, as bearing the risk of disease will also mean becoming accountable for the excess costs associated with socioeconomic disadvantage. 46,47 This echoes, in some ways, previous evaluation of Medicare' s prospective payment system, with analyses that justified the need for disproportionate share and outlier payments.…”

“…[1][2][3][4] Individual health is negatively affected by socioeconomic stressors, leading to poor health and higher health care utilization. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] The complex interplay of clinical, social, and other factors is illustrated in Fig 1. 25 Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families have myriad health problems. 5,13,20,21 Among adults with chronic conditions, lower SES has been associated with longer hospital lengths of stay (LOS), higher costs of care, 12,18 and higher risk of hospital readmissions.…”