Understanding differences in infant mortality rates across local areas

With general improvements in health care, in particular in midwifery and neonatal intensive care, infant mortality rates in England have decreased over the past four decades. But improvements in infant mortality rates have stalled since 2014 and there are socioeconomic and demographic inequalities and variation across the country.

Many previous studies on risk factors for infant mortality have focused on data at an individual level, but this hypothesis-generating piece of research, using an adjusted regression model, covers the whole population and analyses publicly available data from 2017 in a novel way.

Applying our linked data approach to local authority-level infant mortality rates in 2017, we found that infant mortality rates were likely to be higher in that year in areas where:

• there were fewer households with central heating and where households were more likely to be crowded;
• there was a greater proportion of the population who were severely obese;
• there was lower spend on early years provision and Sure Start. 

This report provides a new methodology for local authorities to better monitor and interrogate data that might not be available nationally. Focusing specifically on influences at this level will also help local authorities to build area-specific evidence to support better local decision-making and the development of targeted policies to tackle infant mortality.