Health inequalities in childhood diseases: temporal trends in the inter-crisis period

• Published in: International journal for equity in health 2024-04, Vol.23 (1), p.76-76, Article 76
• Main Authors: Carrilero, Neus, García-Altés, Anna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adverse events; Age; Analysis; Anxiety; Boys; Child; Childhood; Children; Children & youth; Childrens health; Congenital anomalies; Congenital defects; Demographic aspects; Deprivation; Disease; Diseases; Disorders; Economic aspects; Emotions; Epidemiology; Girls; Guardians; Health care disparities; Health disparities; Health inequalities; Health services; Health status; Inequalities; Inequality; Longitudinal studies; Mental disorders; Mental health; Mood; Obesity; Payment systems; Pharmaceuticals; Poisoning; Policy making; Population studies; Regression analysis; Regression models; Sex; Social aspects; Social exclusion; Social security; Sociodemographics; Socioeconomic factors; Time; Time trends (Statistics); Trends; Variables
• ISSN: 1475-9276; 1475-9276
• DOI: 10.1186/s12939-024-02169-5

Since 2008, children in Catalonia (Spain) have suffered a period of great economic deprivation. This situation has generated broad-ranging health inequalities in a variety of diseases. It is not known how these inequalities have changed over time. The aim of the present study is to determine trends in inequalities over this period in ten relevant diseases in children according to sex and age. A retrospective cross-sectional population-based study of all children under 15 years old resident in Catalonia during the 2014-2021 period (over 1.2 million children/year) and of their diagnoses registered by the Catalan Health System. Health inequalities were estimated by calculating the relative index of inequality and time trends using logistic regression models. Interaction terms were added to test for the effects of sex on time trends. Increasing significant temporal trends in inequalities were shown for both sexes in almost all the diseases or adverse events studied (asthma, injuries, poisoning, congenital anomalies, overweight and obesity), in mood disorders in boys, and in adverse birth outcomes in girls. Adjustment and anxiety and mood disorders in girls showed a decreasing temporal trend in inequalities. More than half of the diseases and adverse events studied experienced significant annual increases in inequality. Poisoning stood out with an average annual increase of 8.65% [4.30, 13.00], p ≤ 0.001 in boys and 8.64% [5.76, 11.52], p ≤ 0.001) in girls, followed by obesity with increases of 5.52% [4.15, 6.90], p =