Health inequality increased between 2000 and 2019
A report by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found that there was a decline in perinatal mortality over the 2000s and 2010s, but that this decline was experienced at a much lower rate for unemployed mothers.
The report found that the perinatal mortality rate, which measures the number of stillbirths and infant deaths within one week of birth, declined from 8.3 in 2000 to 5.4 in 2019. However, for unemployed mothers, although there was a decline, the rate was between 1.6 and 2.2 times the rate of mothers in the higher professional group, and this rate remained elevated throughout the last two decades.
Looking at the standardised mortality rates, there was a clear correlation across the board of economic background and health outcomes. There was furthermore a trend whereby health outcomes got worse between 2000 and 2009, before subsequently improving again over the 2010s.
Given that 2009 was measured at the height of the recession and subsequent rise in poverty, one can infer that more poverty results in worse outcomes, and that the uptick in better health outcomes came for those who subsequently had a higher standard of living as Ireland came out of the recession.
The report also found that agricultural workers and farmers are on average over 2.4 and 2.3 times more likely to die of circulatory disease than employers and managers.
It is roughly between 1.7 and 2 times more on average for unskilled-manual, skilled manual and non-manual. There is very little difference between employers and managers and the unknown and higher and lower professional groups.
Whilst the mortality rate fell across the board between 2000 and 2019, the rate at which it fell varies vastly depending on economic background, with mortality for low-earners falling a rate which was considerably smaller than those from an economically prosperous background, resulting in a wider equality gap than existed in 2000.
The report also included analysis of Covid-19 mortality. It showed that, between March 2020 and May 2021, those in disadvantaged socio-economic groups accounted for higher proportions of deaths relative to their shares in the population aged 65 and older.
While the numbers of deaths in non-white groups were very small overall, those with black or Asian Irish ethnicity accounted for slightly higher proportions of Covid-19 deaths than their respective shares who were aged 65 and above.
