Understanding the emotional state of the population is valuable for policy-makers when responding to a crisis. Data from social media provide high-frequency measures with which to track various aspects of people’s mental and physical wellbeing. Time spent on social media has increased during the pandemic. A growing body of research linking platforms such as Twitter, […]
Category: Health, physical & mental
Limited supplies of Covid-19 vaccines mean that hard choices need to be made. There have been a variety of different national strategies for deciding who should be priorities for the first doses. Each method of allocation raises health, economic and ethical issues. Since the first announcement that a vaccine effective against Covid-19 had been developed, […]
Obesity is increasing in the UK and around the world, including among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. As well as immediate health effects, obesity can have an impact on young people’s learning and future prospects. Obesity in the UK has been rising dramatically in recent years, particularly for children growing up in deprivation. It is likely […]
Being vaccinated against Covid-19 reduces the chances both of becoming seriously ill oneself and of transmitting infection to other people. This has big implications for the behaviour of both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals – and for public health policy. Before the vaccine rollout, the main way to curb the spread of Covid-19 was through changes […]
Two years on, Covid-19 continues to place a substantial burden on healthcare systems around the world. But the pandemic also provides lessons for policy-makers in building resilient services to protect patients against the threat of future diseases. There is growing consensus in the scientific community that the Covid-19 pandemic is reaching an endemic stage (Murray, […]
The health and social care system in Northern Ireland faces significant challenges: from long waiting times for appointments to declining numbers of GP practices. Additional resources and strengthened political will are essential for improving the system and health outcomes for the population. There are continuing concerns about the performance of Northern Ireland’s health and social […]
There is a common belief that whatever measures are taken to reduce the spread of coronavirus, they are unlikely to reduce the ultimate death toll. But well-designed protective policies could save many lives, as well as buying time for pharmaceutical innovations to counter Covid-19. In a recent opinion piece in The Lancet, the controversial former […]
The social care system in England was ill-prepared for coronavirus. Examples of the many weaknesses that have made it harder to protect users include difficulties in acquiring protective equipment and the discharge of hospital patients with Covid-19 into care homes. The Covid-19 pandemic has hit the adult social care sector in England very hard. There […]
Reducing obesity, particularly in children, has been a major aim of governments for many years. It is likely that lockdown in response to the pandemic has been having the opposite effect – making daily life more sedentary, reducing physical activity and increasing food consumption. Obesity was a major public health problem in the UK before […]
Covid-19 is disproportionately affecting the physical and mental health of black, Asian and minority ethnic people in the UK, exacerbating existing inequalities. Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani men have suffered the highest increase in mental distress. The pandemic appears to be affecting the health of black, Asian and minority ethnic people in a disproportionately damaging way […]