Prof. Colin Pritchard’s research into child mortality featured in Sunday Times

Posted on Wednesday, June 18 2014

Professor Colin Pritchard’s research highlighting the issue of child mortality rates in Britain has been featured in the Sunday Times.

Professor Pritchard, a Researcher in Social Psychiatry at BU, found that the UK has one of the highest rates of children’s deaths among developed countries, coming fourth overall in the rankings.

He also found that there is a direct correlation between poverty and income inequality and child mortality in the Uk, with at least 1,827 children dying in 2010 alone.

“British children are trebly disadvantaged,” says Professor Pritchard in The Sunday Times article.

“They live in a country with the worst income equality in the western world, they live in the joint-lowest funded health system, and our under 15s are dying at a rate that puts us near the bottom of the world’s richest nations.”

Trailing behind the UK in the ratings was America, where on average 2,437 children per million died each year. Canada and New Zealand also fell below the UK’s record.

However, Professor Pritchard also found that there are improvements in Britain’s figures, with a fall of 62% since the 1979.

By Anushka Naidoo, BA (Hons) Communications and Media student