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Review
. 2022 Feb 1;34(1):33-38.
doi: 10.1097/MOP.0000000000001087.

Inequality and child health: dynamic population health interventions

Neal Halfon  1   2   3   4 , Shirley A Russ  1   2 , Robert S Kahn  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Inequality and child health: dynamic population health interventions

Neal Halfon et al. Curr Opin Pediatr. .

Abstract

Purpose of review: Established social gradients across a wide range of child health issues including obesity, anxiety, infectious diseases, injuries, prematurity and low birth weight suggest that much illness is avoidable and there is an imperative to intervene in this whole of society issue. This review examines recent advances in understanding of the pathways to health and health inequalities and their application to interventions to improve health equity.

Recent findings: Children's health develops over the life course in ways that are profoundly influenced by their entire developmental ecosystem including individual, family, community and system-level factors. Interventions to address child health inequalities must include action on the structural determinants of health, a greater focus on family and community health development, and attention to the acquisition of developmental capabilities. Nascent dynamic population health initiatives that address whole developmental ecosystems such as All Children Thrive, Better Start Bradford and Generation V, hold real promise for achieving child health equity.

Summary: Pathways to health inequalities are driven by social and structural determinants of health. Interventions to address inequalities need to be driven less by older biomedical models, and more by prevailing ecological and complex systems models incorporating a life course health development approach.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

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Box 1
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See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    2. This paper presents a remarkably through and analytically rich examination of models of child health and of what is understood about potential pathways between social disadvantage and poorer child health with suggestions for interventions to improve health equity.

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