league table ranking child health by football team area has further shown the dramatic health divide between the North and the South.
Ahead of the new football season kicking off later this month, researchers at Health Equity North (HEN) analysed data to create a visual representation of how children from different areas of the country fare across a range of childhood health indicators.
The research team includes University of Manchester experts.
The rankings, based on public health information from the areas local to the clubs, look at: poverty; obesity; infant mortality rate; life expectancy at birth; educational attainment; and the gap in life expectancy.
Presented in the form of a football league table featuring the 20 men’s Premier League teamsdue to battle it out in the new season, the results – ranked from best to worst – demonstrate the extent of disparities in health across the country.
The top half of the table, showing the best performing regions, is dominated by southern clubs and the ‘relegated clubs’ are from the Midlands and the North West.
Manchester United would win the Child Health and Wellbeing League, followed by Bournemouth, Fulham and Tottenham in the top four European places, with Chelsea in fifth, Brighton in sixth and Brentford in seventh place.
The bottom three in the table, who would all be relegated, are Nottingham Forest, Everton and Liverpool.
The league table also shines a spotlight on the health inequalities that exist within towns and cities. While Manchester United win the league, their neighbours Manchester City are almost relegated. Children are 50% less likely to grow up in poverty (22.3%) on the red side of Greater Manchester than on the blue side (44.7%).
There are also high inequalities in life chances within local authorities – there is an almost 13-year gap in life expectancy for babies born in the most and least deprived areas of Kensington and Chelsea. Similarly in Newcastle, the gap in life expectancy at birth is over 10 years.
Dr Luke Munford, HEN Academic Director, Health Economist from the University of Manchester, and co-author of the research, said:
“The Premier League is seen as one of the best, if not the best, leagues in the world. However, our league table demonstrates the graphic inequalities that exist in England. Manchester City did ‘the treble’ last year, yet we show that children being born and brought up near The Etihad face among the worst prospects in the league.
Interestingly, the Manchester derby shows that children born near their neighbours – Manchester United – have among the best child health. These inequalities that exists within a relatively close geographic space highlight the size of the challenges faced. To keep the Premier League’s reputation as the best, we need to improve the outcomes of children and reduce inequalities.”
