Researchers have linked austerity policies to an increased rate of premature and low birth weight babies in Scotland. Studies in a number of European countries, including Portugal, Spain, and Greece, have had similar results and they are expected to apply throughout the UK.
Austerity’s impact on the youngest
A meta analysis of a collection of different research has already shown that mothers of a low socio-economic position are 40% more likely to have premature or low birth weight babies that those of a higher socio-economic position. Poverty increases the rate of stress-related pathways, worsens material input and contributes to behavioural factors.
The new research, published in the European Journal of Public Health, found that shortly after austerity hit in 2010, the rates of early and low weight births increased.
Dr David Walsh, senior lecturer in health inequalities at the University of Glasgow, led the study. He said:
For those born in the 20% most-deprived areas, rates of premature birth increased by around 25% post-2012, having declined year on year from the early 2000s
And as the authors note in the results:
In other words, the odds of [premature birth] increases by 7% each year post 2012, having decreased by 4% each year in the previous 6 years.
The findings chime with multiple studies across Europe. In Portugal, one demonstrated a 20-25% increase in low weight births following the introduction of austerity. Another, which looked at 16 European countries, showed that countries with higher levels of austerity had worse health outcomes for children, including increased rates of low birth weight.
Excess deaths
Austerity doesn’t just negatively effect babies – the future of society. Government policies have also had a devasting impact for adults across the UK. A paper, led by the University of Glasgow and the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, found 334,327 additional deaths linked to austerity from 2012-2019.
Co-author Gerry McCartney, professor of wellbeing economy at the University of Glasgow, said:
As the UK government debates current and future economic direction, it needs to understand, and learn from, the devastating effects that cuts to social security and vital services have had on the health of the population across the whole of the UK.
Austerity continues
Between 2010 and 2021, the Conservative government cut £37bn from the welfare budget. That’s in part through freezing benefits so they do not keep up with inflation. In Labour’s first budget, the governing party failed to even nearly fully reverse the Tories’ cuts, reducing their claim that they are breaking with austerity to a facade.
Featured image via the Canary
