Why children die: death in infants, children and young people in the UK

"Every year, 1,951 more children die in the UK than in Sweden, Europe's best performing country for childhood mortality.

`Why children die: death in infants, children and young people in the UK` was written by independent experts - Ingrid Wolfe, Alison Macfarlane, Angela Donkin, Michael Mormot and Russell Viner -Why children die reviews the existing evidence on childhood mortality." http://ncb.org.uk/whychildrendie
The social determinants of health can help to explain why negative health behaviours are more common in low income groups. Having no job, no prospects, and little money in a developed economy can lead to low levels of self-esteem, poor mental health, depression, higher levels of stress, and difficult relationships, and can make having children young an appealing option...

Sweden has different cultural attitudes from the UK, and these translate into policy. For example, Sweden has lower levels of poverty but it also has a more equitable distribution of poverty and social exclusion between age groups, as shown previously. Furthermore, the Nordic cultural approach to the early years of life means that the quality of their early childhood education and childcare systems, together with long and equitable parental leave, speak of countries that understand childhood to be a special time deserving of protection.

Reducing childhood deaths and improving children’s lives through actions at the level of civil society and state could be achieved by ensuring that all families have a sufficient income to buy essential goods and be free from stress about basic security of housing, heat, and food. These things could be achieved through more equitable distribution of resources through redistributive fiscal policy, and by social policy that protects the young and vulnerable.