Childhood social disadvantage and health and development later in life: the DRIVERS Project
The evidence suggests that early childhood is the most crucial period of development. Socioeconomic environment in which children live has been shown to be related to many outcomes in childhood and later life. The aim of EU FP7-funded DRIVERS project is to (1)systematically review the available evidence on associations between socioeconomic factors and early childhood health and development in Europe, (2)summarise existing intervention research on unequal development and health to enable identifying effective intervention approaches, and (3)conduct data analysis on selected Europe-based studies focusing on early childhood.
METHODS:
Several databases were searched in order to identify European research related to the first two aims. Data from 13 Europe-based early childhood studies are being used to evaluate the associations between childhood social disadvantage and a range of health and developmental outcomes.
RESULTS:
To fulfil first two aims, more than 25,000 papers were assessed identifying observational studies and interventions from more than 30 European countries. Lower parental income/wealth, educational attainment, occupational social class, lack of house tenure, and household material deprivation were identified among the main factors associated with a range of outcomes. To fulfil third aim, we firstly estimated the magnitude of educational inequalities in health and development from birth to early childhood in 13 cohorts and identified strong inequalities in preterm birth, small for gestational age birth, asthma and overweight in childhood. In general, we identified stronger inequalities in countries of Western/Northern Europe than in Southern/Eastern Europe. In three largest cohorts from the UK and Scandinavia we also identified pathways and complex relationships between social factors and health throughout the childhood.
CONCLUSIONS:
A range of social and economic factors has been shown to be associated with different adverse child outcomes and many outcomes later in the life. It is thus important to identify interventions that help reducing these inequalities.