Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

BACKGROUND: There are concerns that child mental health inequalities may have widened during the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigated whether child mental health inequalities changed in 2020/2021 compared with prepandemic. METHODS: We analysed 16 361 observations from 9272 children in the population representative UK Household Longitudinal Study. Child mental health was measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) at ages 5 and 8 years in annual surveys 2011-2019, and at ages 5-11 years in July 2020, September 2020 and March 2021...

BACKGROUND: Rates of drug overdoses, alcohol-related liver disease and suicide attempts represent a major public health burden in Canada. While the existing literature does highlight some evidence of association between income inequality and mental health and deaths of despair, no existing research has investigated more intermediate events. As such, the objective of the current study is to investigate the association between income inequality and hospitalisations of despair over time...

BACKGROUND: Despite being a vaccine-preventable disease, influenza remains a major public health threat with vaccine safety concerns reducing vaccine acceptability. Immune responses to vaccines and adverse events may differ between males and females, but most studies do not report results by sex. Using data from clinical trials, we explored sex differences in adverse events following seasonal influenza vaccines. METHODS: We obtained data for phase III randomised controlled trials identified through a systematic review and clinical trials registries, and performed a two-stage meta-analysis...

Inclusion health groups make up a small proportion of the general population, so despite the extreme social exclusion and poor health outcomes that these groups experience, they are often overlooked in public health investment and policy development. In this paper, we demonstrate that a utilitarian argument can be made for investment in better support for inclusion health groups despite their small size. That is, by preventing social exclusion, there is the potential for large aggregate health benefits to the whole population...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Metabolic profiling (the extensive measurement of circulating metabolites across multiple biological pathways) is increasingly employed in clinical care. However, there is little evidence on the benefit of metabolic profiling as compared with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk scores. METHODS: UK Biobank is a prospective study of 0.5 million participants, aged 40-69 at recruitment. Analyses were restricted to 74 780 participants with metabolic profiling (measured using nuclear magnetic resonance) and without CVD at baseline...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: The social determinants of ethnic disparities in risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection during the first wave of the pandemic in the UK remain unclear. METHODS: In May 2020, a total of 20 195 adults were recruited from the general population into the UK Biobank SARS-CoV-2 Serology Study. Between mid-May and mid-November 2020, participants provided monthly blood samples. At the end of the study, participants completed a questionnaire on social factors during different periods of the pandemic...

BACKGROUND: Studies have shown that, compared with the general native population, immigrants display weaker or absent income gradients in mortality. The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which the income gradient is modified by immigrants' duration of residence in Sweden. METHODS: Swedish register data from 2004 to 2016 were used to study the association between individual income and all-cause mortality among foreign-born and Swedish-born individuals at ages 25-64 years...

Research misconduct refers to a set of unethical practices in research and publication and is the main reason for retraction of articles published in the academic literature. Research misconduct has negative consequences and has generated public scepticism about research, which has led to increasing distrust in science. In this context, a joint effort by the scientific community, academic institutions, scientific journals and research funders is needed to identify and prevent research misconduct. In this paper, we will evaluate what has already been done and what is needed to do to better address research misconduct...

BACKGROUND: Cirrhosis is rising in North America, driven partly by the epidemic of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), most in women of reproductive age. Little is known about factors that impact perinatal outcomes and healthcare utilisation in pregnant women with NAFLD cirrhosis. OBJECTIVES: We investigated the association between population-level social determinants, health outcomes and healthcare utilisation. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed healthcare utilisation and perinatal outcomes in a cohort of pregnant women with NAFLD cirrhosis from Ontario, Canada from 2000 to 2016 and followed for 90 days postdelivery...

OBJECTIVES: This study took the State-owned Enterprises (SOE) reform from 1996 to 2002 in China as a natural experiment to explore the consequences of economic insecurity exposure during early-adulthood and mid-adulthood on cognitive function in later life. METHODS: Data were obtained from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS), 2014 and 2015. CHARLS is a nationally representative survey covering 28 provinces in China. A total of 4536 urban dwellers born earlier than 1971 (aged 25 years old and above at the start of the SOE reform in 1996) were included in our analyses...

BACKGROUND: Over the past 3 years, a multitude of studies have highlighted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of children and young people (CYP). In this umbrella review, we synthesise global evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of CYP from existing systematic reviews with and/or without meta-analysis. METHODS: Adopting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, we evaluated 349 citations and identified 24 eligible reviews with medium to high methodological quality to be reviewed narratively...

BACKGROUND: In low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), energy poverty has predominantly been studied from the unidimensional perspective of indoor air pollution. Acute respiratory infection (ARI) in children under 5 years of age is the most important disease associated with indoor air pollution attributable to solid fuel use in LMICs. This study aimed to extend the existing knowledge on the association between energy poverty and ARI among children under 5 years of age in LMICs, by adopting a multidimensional perspective...

BACKGROUND: Little is known on how lifestyle factors, individually or in combination, may relate to nursing home admission, an outcome of great societal and economic importance with increased population ageing. The aim of this study was to determine the association of lifestyle risk factors with nursing home admission. METHODS: This prospective cohort study linked data from the 45 and Up Study, Australia, to health records. 127 108 men and women, aged ≥60 years, were recruited between 2006 and 2009...

BACKGROUND: We aimed at estimating the causal effect of switching from precarious to standard employment on the 6-year and 12-year risk of all-cause mortality among workers aged 20-55 years in Sweden. METHODS: We emulated a series of 12 target trials starting every year between 2005 and 2016 using Swedish register data (n=251 273). We classified precariously employed individuals using a multidimensional approach at baseline as (1) remaining in precarious employment (PE) (73...

BACKGROUND   : People with multiple long-term conditions (MLTC) face health and social care challenges. This study aimed to classify people by MLTC and social care needs (SCN) into distinct clusters and quantify the association between derived clusters and care outcomes. METHODS : A cross-sectional study was conducted using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, including people with up to 10 MLTC. Self-reported SCN was assessed through 13 measures of difficulty with activities of daily living, 10 measures of mobility difficulties and whether health status was limiting earning capability...

BACKGROUND: Early identification of modifiable risk factors is essential for the prevention of frailty. This study aimed to explore the causal relationships between a spectrum of genetically predicted risk factors and frailty. METHODS: Univariable and multivariable Mendelian randomisation (MR) analyses were performed to explore the relationships between 22 potential risk factors and frailty, using summary genome-wide association statistics. Frailty was accessed by the frailty index...

BACKGROUND: Precarious employment is a determinant of self-reported mental health problems among young adults. Less is known about more severe and objectively measured health outcomes, such as mental health problems requiring inpatient care. The current study aims to investigate the effect of precarious employment in early adulthood on later mental health problems requiring inpatient care. METHOD: A register-based cohort study, based on the Swedish Work, Illness and Labor-market Participation cohort, was conducted, following a cohort of young adults aged 27 years between 2000 and 2003 (born between 1973 and 1976) (n=339 403)...