ArticleJournal of epidemiology and community health2021
Impact of cuts to local government spending on Sure Start children's centres on childhood obesity in England: a longitudinal ecological study.
Article in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- Health impacts of the Sure Start programme on disadvantaged children in the UK: a systematic review.BMJ open · 2025Pooled it
- Article
- Causal mediation approaches for understanding pathways to inequalities and policy entry points: examples from early years health and development.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2026Article
- Trends in childhood obesity for upper tier local authorities in England between 2007/08 and 2023/24: a latent trajectory analysis.Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Nonattendance in preventive child health examinations associated with increased risk of school-aged obesity in Denmark.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2025Article
- Parental and healthcare provider attitudes towards the Healthy Child Programme in England: a qualitative analysis.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Influenza: cause or excuse? An analysis of flu's influence on worsening mortality trends in England and Wales, 2010-19.British medical bulletin · 2024Article
- "We're one small piece of the puzzle": evaluating the impact of short-term funding for tier two weight management services.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Using administrative data to evaluate national policy impacts on child and maternal health: a research framework from the Maternal and Child Health Network (MatCHNet).Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2023Article
- Identifying opportunities for upstream evaluations relevant to child and maternal health: a UK policy-mapping review.Archives of disease in childhood · 2023Review
- Understanding the impact funding cuts on Environmental and regulatory services and gastrointestinal infections: a longitudinal ecological study.NIHR open research · 2023Article
- An exploration of the statutory Healthy Start vitamin supplementation scheme in North West England.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Australian State and Territory Eclectic Approaches to Obesity Prevention in the Early Years: Policy Mapping and Perspectives of Senior Health Officials.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Life Course Neighbourhood Deprivation and Self-Rated Health: Does It Matter Where You Lived in Adolescence and Do Neighbourhood Effects Build Up over Life?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
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6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
backgroundChildhood obesity is rising in disadvantaged areas in England. Sure Start children's centres provide community-based services for children <5 years and their parents, including many services that can support healthy weight, directly or indirectly. Since 2010, austerity-driven cuts to local authority (LA) budgets have led to substantially reduced public expenditure on Sure Start services. We assessed whether childhood obesity prevalence has increased more since 2010 in those areas in England that experienced greater cuts to spending on Sure Start.
methodsThis longitudinal ecological study covers the period 2010/2011-2017/2018. Our exposure was LA expenditure on Sure Start, using Department for Education data. Our main outcome was LA obesity prevalence at age 4-5 years, using National Child Measurement Programme data. We used fixed-effects panel regression to quantify the association between change in spending and change in the prevalence of childhood obesity.
resultsSpending on Sure Start children's centres decreased on average 53% over the study period, with deeper cuts in more deprived LAs. Each 10% spending cut was associated with a 0.34% relative increase in obesity prevalence the following year (95% CI 0.15% to 0.53%). We estimated there were an additional 4575 children with obesity (95% CI 1751 to 7399) and 9174 overweight or obese (95% CI 2689 to 15 660) compared with expected numbers had funding levels been maintained.
conclusionsCuts to spending on Sure Start children's centres were associated with increased childhood obesity. With deprived areas experiencing bigger spending cuts, reinvesting in these services may, alongside wider benefits for child development, contribute to reducing inequalities in childhood obesity.
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