Some three children on average die in Ireland annually from malnutrition, according to a new UNICEF report. The Irish fatality rate has dropped from five per year in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Report Card, by UNICEF's Innocenti Research Centre, found that Ireland, along with Spain, Greece, Italy and Norway, appears to have an "exceptionally low" incidence of child fatalities due to malnutrition.
However, Ms Maura Quinn, executive director of UNICEF Ireland, warned inconsistencies in the classification of child deaths, along with differing definitions of abuse, meant it was difficult to compare international rates of child maltreatment.
"UNICEF has a growing certainty that child deaths from maltreatment are under-represented by the available statistics. All statistics on child abuse should be treated with great caution," she said.
The United States, Portugal, and Mexico had the worst records for child malnutrition deaths - between 10 and 15 times higher than the rate of deaths in Ireland. The research concluded there is a strong link between levels of child deaths from maltreatment, and general levels of violence in society. Nations with low levels of general violence also displayed low levels of child deaths from maltreatment.
It also found the most common family problem linked to child maltreatment was drug and alcohol abuse. There was strong evidence to link the maltreatment of children with families who experienced domestic violence between adults.
The latest Report Card is the fifth in a series produced by the Florence-based centre. Death rates were calculated using the World Health Organisation's mortality database.
