Child Death Reviews: year ending 31 March 2018

• Around 4 in 10 child deaths were due to a neonatal event. Sudden death in infancy, apparent homicide and drowning were the most common event that led to a child's death that had modifiable factors (all around two-thirds of their respective totals).
• Consistent with previous years, the majority of child death reviews completed were for children who died under the age of one (65%).
• Nearly 4 in every 10 deaths reviewed in children aged 28 days – 364 days and children aged 15 – 17 years were identified as having modifiable factors. This is a higher proportion when compared to the youngest of babies; only 25% of deaths in children aged under 28 days were identified as having modifiable factors.

Figure 4: Age at the time of death by modifiable and no modifiable factors (%) in the year ending 31 March 2018

• Similar proportions of girls (30%) and boys (29%) had deaths identified as having modifiable factors.
• Of the deaths where ethnicity is known, children from a mixed ethnic background had more modifiable factors identified (34%) than other ethnic backgrounds.