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Groups Concerned about New Zealand Children During Economic Downturn

Tracking the health and wellbeing of New Zealand children will be stepped up amid national concerns from academics, doctors and child welfare organisations about the potential for rising child health problems and poverty during the current economic downturn.

As the first step, the New Zealand Children’s Social Health Monitor Website will be launched at the Paediatric Society’s annual conference in Hamilton on Wednesday 25th November.

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The Children’s Social Health Monitor was developed collaboratively by organisations concerned about the impact of the economic downturn on children’s wellbeing. These include the Paediatric Society of New Zealand, the Population Child Health Special Interest Group of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, the Maori SIDS Program, TAHA (the Pacific Well Mother and Infant Service), the New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service, the Kia Mataara Well Child Consortium, the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services, and academics from the Universities of Otago and Auckland.

“The Children’s Social Health Monitor will track the economic wellbeing of New Zealand children and their families over the next few years, along with a range of conditions which might be expected to change during the downturn,” says working group member and Director of New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service Dr Elizabeth Craig.

“If we find that child health outcomes are deteriorating, this will be brought to the attention of policy makers so that appropriate responses can be implemented.”

The New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service based at the University of Otago will update the health indicators annually, until the economic position of New Zealand children improves. It is also intended that the number of conditions monitored will expand, as new issues emerge over the next few years.

Some key facts emerging from the Children’s Social Health Monitor, Nov 2009

1. While New Zealand recorded GDP growth of 0.1% in the June Quarter, unemployment is likely to keep rising in the short to medium term.

2. Even in 2007-2008, when New Zealand’s unemployment rates were at their lowest, one in five (20%) of New Zealand’s children were reliant on a benefit recipient for their family’s income. Thus we are already starting from a high baseline, in terms of children’s reliance on benefit recipients, even before we consider the impact of rising unemployment in the next few months.

3. A study of New Zealand children born in 1993 and followed through to 2000 (when unemployment rates were similar to those predicted in the next 18 months) found that 54% were reliant at some point on a caregiver on a benefit. By age 7 in 2000, 20.8% had spent 5 of their first 7 years of life reliant on a benefit recipient, with 6.1% spending their entire first 7 years of life reliant on a benefit.

4. The 2004 NZ Living Standards Survey suggested that 58% of families with children who relied on benefits were living in severe or significant hardship, as compared to 12% of families receiving market income. Living in severe or significant hardship was associated with such things as not having suitable wet weather gear or shoes for children, and postponing doctors or dentists visits because of cost.

5. Research suggests that children exposed to low family income in the critical first 5 years, in addition to experiencing poorer health (across a range of measures including hospital admissions and mortality from various causes), also have poorer long term outcomes (e.g. leaving school early and without qualifications, being unemployed in later life).
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7. New Zealand’s children experience a large number of hospital admissions, and a smaller number of deaths each year, from socioeconomically sensitive conditions (i.e. conditions where rates are much higher in economically deprived areas). Overseas research suggests it is difficult to predict whether rates for these conditions will increase during the current downturn, as this often depends on the extent to which Governments can maintain social safety nets for those affected (e.g. ensuring ongoing access to free healthcare and education, the provision of adequate income support vs. cutting services in order to balance government budgets). The adaptations families themselves make to reduced economic resources also play a role.

8. It is too early to see the full effects of the current economic downturn on hospital admissions and mortality for children. While a small upswing in hospital admissions for socioeconomically sensitive medical conditions was evident in 2008, it is unclear whether this is a one-off fluctuation or the beginning of a long term trend. The current data, however, does demonstrate marked ethnic differences across a range of child health outcomes, with much higher rates among Maori and Pacific children.

9. With one in five children already reliant on a benefit recipient, and the numbers likely to rise in the near future, the evidence suggests that New Zealand’s current benefit provisions will be unable to protect a large proportion of our children from severe or significant hardship. This in turn, will likely have both short term (e.g. hospital admissions and mortality) and long term (e.g. leaving school without qualifications, workforce non participation) consequences for New Zealand in the months and years to come.

ENDS

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