Child mortality in England compared with Sweden: a birth cohort study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Child mortality is almost twice as high in England compared with Sweden. We aimed to establish the extent to which adverse birth characteristics and socioeconomic factors explain this difference.

Methods

We developed nationally representative cohorts of singleton livebirths between Jan 1, 2003, and Dec 31, 2012, using the Hospital Episode Statistics in England, and the Swedish Medical Birth Register in Sweden, with longitudinal follow-up from linked hospital admissions and mortality records. We analysed mortality as the outcome, based on deaths from any cause at age 2-27 days, 28-364 days, and 1-4 years. We fitted Cox proportional hazard regression models to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) for England compared with Sweden in all three age groups. The models were

SUBMITTER: Zylbersztejn A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5958228 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature