ArticleBMJ global health2017
Effects of economic downturns on child mortality: a global economic analysis, 1981-2010.
Article in BMJ global health, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The impact of economic growth and recessions on maternal and child health outcomes in sub-Saharan African countries: a systematic literature review.Reproductive health · 2025Pooled it
- Association of socioeconomic disadvantage and ethnicity with perinatal neonatal, and infant mortality in Slovakia.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Trends in gestational age at live birth in Scotland from 2005 to 2019: a population-based study.Wellcome open research · 2024Article
- The influence of the Great Recession on perinatal health-an ecological study on the trend changes and regional differences in Portugal.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2023Article
- Infant mortality in the municipality of São Paulo: trend and social inequality (2006-2019).Revista de saude publica · 2023Article
- Is Economic Growth Good for Population Health? A Critical Review.Canadian studies in population · 2023Review
- The end of the COVID-19 pandemic.European journal of clinical investigation · 2022Article
- Estimated impact of the 2020 economic downturn on under-5 mortality for 129 countries.PloS one · 2022Article
- Article
- Public health and economic responses to COVID-19: finding the tipping point.Public health · 2021Article
- Article
- Economic Recession and Attendances in the Pediatric Emergency Department.BioMed research international · 2019Article
- The Brazilian health system at crossroads: progress, crisis and resilience.BMJ global health · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo analyse how economic downturns affect child mortality both globally and among subgroups of countries of variable income levels.
designRetrospective observational study using economic data from the World Bank's Development Indicators and Global Development Finance (2013 edition). Child mortality data were sourced from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
settingGlobal.
participants204 countries between 1981 and 2010.
main outcome measuresChild mortality, controlling for country-specific differences in political, healthcare, cultural, structural, educational and economic factors.
results197 countries experienced at least 1 economic downturn between 1981 and 2010, with a mean of 7.97 downturns per country (range 0-21; SD 0.45). At the global level, downturns were associated with significant (p<0.0001) deteriorations in each child mortality measure, in comparison with non-downturn years: neonatal (coefficient: 1.11, 95% CI 0.855 to 1.37), postneonatal (2.00, 95% CI 1.61 to 2.38), child (2.93, 95% CI 2.26 to 3.60) and under 5 years of age (5.44, 95% CI 4.31 to 6.58) mortality rates. Stronger (larger falls in the growth rate of gross domestic product/capita) and longer (lasting 2 years rather than 1) downturns were associated with larger significant deteriorations (p<0.001). During economic downturns, countries in the poorest quartile experienced ∼1½ times greater deterioration in neonatal mortality, compared with their own baseline; a 3-fold deterioration in postneonatal mortality; a 9-fold deterioration in child mortality and a 3-fold deterioration in under-5 mortality, than countries in the wealthiest quartile (p<0.0005). For 1-5 years after downturns ended, each mortality measure continued to display significant deteriorations (p<0.0001).
conclusionsEconomic downturns occur frequently and are associated with significant deteriorations in child mortality, with worse declines in lower income countries.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
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