Article posted on CLR website

On November 6 and 7, the International Network for Research on Inequalities in Child Health (INRICH) will be celebrating its second anniversary in Warwick, England. Over thirty researchers from various countries will participate in this event that will enable us to develop collaborations and start up shared projects. Two years old and full of promise International Network for Research on Inequalities in Child Health On November 6 and 7, the International Network for Research on Inequalities in Child Health (INRICH) will be celebrating its second anniversary in Warwick, England. Over thirty researchers from various countries will participate in this event that will enable them to develop collaborations and start up shared projects. Early childhood and health Childhood is a period that is absolutely crucial for health. It has already been shown that poverty affects brain function, starting at a very early age. A number of scientists supported this point of view during the most recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, held in February 2008. Findings showed that high levels of stress hormones in poor children, particularly between the ages of six months and three years, impair their neurological development. According to Martha Farah, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, the biggest effects are on language and memory. We are hearing more and more about the effects of poverty on the health of adults; and yet there is very little information about the effects of low family income on the health of young children and on the mechanisms involved. Strength in numbers When they created INRICH, Louise Séguin, Professor in the Department of social and preventive medicine at Université de Montréal, and Dr. Nicholas Spencer, Professor of Child Health at Warwick University, wanted to bring together researchers working on this theme on an international scale. Such a network will spark renewed vigour and provide further momentum to this field of research so that it can be brought to public prominence. This initiative is desirable and pertinent, as evidenced in Séguin and Spencer's ability to recruit around 60 members in a very short time, including Neal Halfon of, University of California; Gary Evans of Cornell University; Thomas Boyce of University of British Columbia; and Hein Raat of Erasmus Medical Centre, Erasmus University Rotterdam, to mention only a few. In autumn 2008, over twenty researchers who had gathered in Montréal, established the network’s research priorities: to encourage collaborative research pertaining to child health linked to social conditions and disseminate results to decision makers, while also reviewing the current state of knowledge. The research is focused on health, of course, but it should also look at social policies and equity issues related to the health of poor children. Funding the future In our societies, children are the poorest of the poor. Economic, family and social policies that reduce the number of poor children are the most likely to improve the population’s physical and social health. Therefore we can only hope that the network will obtain the funding it needs. Its future and the future of the promises it holds for the collective good depend on it.