Rajmil Rajmil, Luis AlbertoSiddiqi, ArjumandTaylor-Robinson, DavidSpencer, Nick2016-02-042016-02-042015Rajmil L, Siddiqi A, Taylor-Robinson D, Spencer N. Understanding the impact of the economic crisis on child health: the case of Spain. Int J Equity Health. 2015 Oct 14;14:95. doi: 10.1186/s12939-015-0236-1.1475-9276http://hdl.handle.net/10230/25731INTRODUCTION: The objectives of the study were to explore the effect of the economic crisis on child health using Spain as a case study, and to document and assess the policies implemented in response to the crisis in this context. METHODS: Serial cross-sectional data from Eurostat, the Spanish Health Interview Survey, and the database of childhood hospitalisation were analysed to explore impacts on child health, and key determinants of child health. A content analysis of National data sources/government legislation, and Spanish literature was used to describe policies implemented following the crisis. RESULTS: Unemployment rates in the general population (8.7% in 2005 and 25.6% in 2013), and children living in unemployed families (5.6% and 13.8%) increased in the study period. The percentage of children living under the poverty line, and income inequalities increased 15-20% from 2005 to 2012. Severe material deprivation rate has worsened in families with Primary Education, while the number of families attending Non-Governmental Organisations has increased. An impact on children's health at the general population level has not currently been detected; however an impact on general health, mental health and use of healthcare services was found in vulnerable groups. Investment in social protection and public policy for children showed a reduction as part of austerity measures taken by the Spanish governments. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the impact on social determinants, a short-term impact on child health has been detected only in specific vulnerable groups. The findings suggest the need to urgently protect vulnerable groups of children from the impact of austerity.application/pdfeng© 2015 Rajmil et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0/nInternational License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and/nreproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to/nthe Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver/n(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Crisi financera global, 2007-2009 -- Aspectes socialsInfants -- Aspectes socialsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-015-0236-1info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess