BMJ  2005;331:419 (20 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7514.419

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Disparities in health widen between rich and poor in England

London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Social disparities in health outcomes in England have been widening, not narrowing, in the early years of the government's drive to reduce class inequalities in health by 2010, says a status report commissioned by the Department of Health.

In 2002 the government set a target to reduce by 10% the degree to which the fifth of local authorities with the worst figures in infant mortality and life expectancy fall below the national average, compared with a 1997-9 baseline figure.

But the class gap in health has actually been growing, the statistics show. In 2001-3 infant mortality among the families of "routine and manual" workers was 19% higher—at six deaths in every 1000 live births—than the national average. In 1997-9 infant mortality in this social group had been 13% higher than the national average and in 1999-2001 it had been 17% higher. Infant mortality in this group in 2001-3 was 69% . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Labour's "Black report" moment?

Mary Shaw, Danny Dorling, Richard Mitchell, and George Davey Smith
BMJ 2005 331: 575. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• David, R., Collins, J. Jr (2007). Disparities in Infant Mortality: What's Genetics Got to Do With It?. AJPH 97: 1191-1197 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Shaw, M., Dorling, D., Mitchell, R., Davey Smith, G. (2005). Labour's "Black report" moment?. BMJ 331: 575-575 [Full text]  

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