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Concerns over the supply of highly-skilled (HS) science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) workers are well established and have been a feature of policy discourse in the UK for more than 50 years. Since the 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union, these concerns have been exacerbated by uncertainty about the movement of labour between UK and Europe. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of STEM skills in a wide range of areas. However, despite continued government investment in initiatives to address these concerns, the evidence base for shortages is neither well-established nor compatible with economic theories of labour supply. In order to fill a gap in the current evidence, we report on a unique analysis following the career destinations of STEM graduates from the 1970 British Cohort Study. While only a minority of STEM graduates ever work in highly-skilled STEM jobs, we identified three particular characteristics of the STEM labour market that may present challenges for employers: STEM employment appears to be predicated on early entry to the sector; a large proportion of STEM graduates are likely to never work in the sector; and there may be more movement out of HS STEM positions by older workers than in other sectors.

Mortality at older ages varies by season, increasing the uncertainty associated with modelling and projecting mortality at older ages and ultimately contributing to pension providers' overall risk. As the population ages, it becomes more important to understand variations in seasonal mortality between pensioners and to identify those most vulnerable to seasonal mortality differences. Using data from the Self-Administered Pension Schemes mortality investigation of the Continuous Mortality Investigation of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, UK, this paper investigates variations in seasonal mortality amongst members of UK occupational pension schemes over the period 2000--2016. Results are also compared with the corresponding population of England and Wales. For the oldest age groups (80+), which are most affected by seasonality, females are more vulnerable to seasonal differences in mortality for each pensioner group relative to males. Following a long-term decline in the winter-summer mortality gap the gap increased over the period, particularly for female pensioners and dependants. Seasonality remains a feature of UK mortality at older ages and risk management for pension schemes should consider seasonality when analysing overall mortality experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against a backdrop of increasing cultural visibility of people who identify across, between or beyond the categories of male and female, young people have been positioned within the wider social imaginary as radical trailblazers for a new, progressive gender order. This paper provides original insights that empirically ground and interrogate such claims. Drawing on findings from focus group interviews held with 136 young people (aged 16–24) in the UK, the paper demonstrates how young people's understandings and narrations of gender diversity both support and contest linear progress narratives. We show how young people position their acceptance of gender diversity in contradistinction to older generations. However, this narrative of generational progress was undermined and complicated by tensions and ambiguities within young people's talk. Our findings suggest that, alongside being accepting of gender diversity, young people also experience confusion and misunderstanding which may mean that they are more comfortable with stable and binary forms of gender diversity. Moreover, some young people express ideological resistance to gender diversity, informed by wider debates around 'identity politics'. Overall, we stress the importance of situating young people's gender talk amidst multiple discursive constellations through which increasingly politicised struggles around the meanings of 'gender' are currently playing out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevention of fraud against older adults and other age groups, has been the subject of limited research with very few systematic attempts to map different tools and strategies that are used. This paper using the UK and South Korea as a starting point, but other countries too, maps some of the most common tools and strategies used to prevent frauds that target older adults. It develops the first comprehensive typology of strategies built upon the degree to which they embrace modern technology. It shows much of the prevention used is low tech, but high-tech solutions rooted in the fourth industrial revolution technologies are emerging and growing. The paper draws these different strategies and tools together to offer a holistic model for the prevention of fraud against older adults for further debate and utilisation by professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the impact of two measures of lifestyle—the consumption of fruit and vegetables and doing exercise—on individual well-being. Since lifestyle is likely to be endogenous, we correct for this by using two dimensions of delayed gratification as instruments. The ability to delay gratification enables individuals to give greater weight to the investment component of lifestyle decisions rather than merely the affective component. Our analysis is based on the UK Understanding Society Data, which covers 40,000 UK households over time. We find that the two delayed gratification instruments are positive and significant in influencing lifestyle. In Stage 2, we find that fruit and vegetable consumption and sports activity increase life satisfaction, though the impacts vary for men and women. These results are robust across income quartiles, region, gender, education and age groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss a case study on how misinformation regarding Covid‐19 health outcomes can arise due to confounding. Data from the UK on mortality rates suggest that people who have some level of vaccination and contract the Delta variant of Covid are twice as likely to die than those who are unvaccinated. Age, however, a confounding variable, when accounted for, produces a more complicated picture. The mortality rates for the vaccinated are statistically lower than the unvaccinated for the older but not younger age group. We present several approaches for teaching confounding to help students better understand this underemphasized concept's cause, effects, and origins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notable cross-country differences exist in the diffusion of the Covid-19 and in its lethality. Contact patterns in populations, and in particular intergenerational contacts, have been argued to be responsible for the most vulnerable, the elderly, getting infected more often and thus driving up mortality in some context, like in the southern European one. This paper asks a simple question: is it between whom contacts occur that matters or is it simply how many contacts people have? Due to the high number of confounding factors, it is extremely difficult to empirically assess the impact of single network features separately. This is why we rely on a simulation exercise in which we counterfactually manipulate single aspects of countries' age distribution and network structures. We disentangle the contributions of the kind and of the number of contacts while holding constant the age structure. More precisely, we isolate the respective effects of inter-age contact patterns, degree distribution and clustering on the virus propagation across age groups. We use survey data on face-to-face contacts for Great Britain, Italy, and Germany, to reconstruct networks that mirror empirical contact patterns in these three countries. It turns out that the number of social contacts (degree distribution) largely accounts for the higher infection rates of the elderly in the Italian context, while differences in inter-age contacts patterns are only responsible for minor differences. This suggests that policies specifically targeting inter-age contacts would be little effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the role of children in explaining the life-cycle pattern of consumption (which is hump-shaped since it is higher in the middle of life and lower at the beginning and end of life). Unlike previous studies, a true panel of U.K. households was exploited to investigate whether currently childless households that anticipate having children behave differently from similar households that do not anticipate children. Spending for each group at different ages was estimated using a simple kernel regression. The paper finds that those households that anticipate children, when compared to households that do not anticipate children, do not seem to significantly reduce total spending before having children, nor do they significantly increase total spending after children arrive. Hence, children do not seem to fully explain the hump shape of consumption over the life-cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Suicide is the leading cause of death of children and young people under 35 in the UK, and suicide rates are rising in this age group. Schools are considered an appropriate and logical setting for youth suicide prevention activities, with universal, selective, and indicated approaches all demonstrating efficacy. Given that international best practice recommends suicide prevention programmes combine these approaches, and that to date this has not been done in school settings in the UK, this study aims to evaluate the feasibility of delivering a suicide prevention programme incorporating universal, selective, and indicated components in UK schools. Methods: This study is a feasibility cluster-randomised controlled trial (RCT) of an adapted version of the Multimodal Approach to Preventing Suicide in Schools (MAPSS) programme. The programme, initially developed in Australia, involves delivering universal psychoeducation to all pupils, screening them for suicide risk, and delivering Internet-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (Reframe IT-UK) to those students identified as being at high-risk for suicide. The programme will be trialled in six secondary schools in Northwest England and will target Year 10 students (14- and 15-year-olds). The primary aims are to assess: 1) the acceptability and safety of delivering MAPSS in a school setting in the UK; 2) the social validity of the MAPSS programme; and 3) the feasibility of delivering a large-scale, appropriately powered, cluster-RCT and economic evaluation of this intervention in the future. Secondary aims are to assess changes over time in mental health and wellbeing outcomes. Discussion: This study is the first to evaluate a suicide prevention programme comprising universal, selective, and indicated components in UK schools. If the programme is found to be feasible, it could be more widely tested in schools and may ultimately lead to reduced rates of suicide and suicidal behaviour in young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown measures imposed as a result affected the lives of people in all parts of society across the world. In 2020, during the first UK national lockdown, older adults (aged 70 years and over) were told to 'shield' within their homes, as they were regarded as being at higher risk of serious COVID-19 infection compared to other age groups. This paper explores older adults' experiences of COVID-19 lockdown measures whilst living in housing with care schemes for older people. The purpose is to examine the impact of the lockdown measures on scheme life including social connections amongst residents and their general everyday wellbeing during this time. We present qualitative findings based on interviews with 72 residents who took part in longitudinal and cross-sectional interviews across 26 housing with care schemes. Data were analysed using a thematic framework approach to examine specifically their experiences of living in housing with care schemes during the 2020 UK lockdown. The paper highlights that COVID-19 restrictions had a detrimental impact on the social connections and interactions of older residents living in housing with care schemes, as well as on their feelings of autonomy and independence. Despite this, residents adapted and coped with self-isolation restrictions and sought out positive ways to maintain social contact with others inside and outside to the scheme. We further highlight the tensions that providers of housing for older adults faced in promoting residents' autonomy and connectedness whilst also trying to provide a safe living environment and protect residents from risk of COVID-19 infection. Our findings apply not only to a pandemic situation but to the broader understanding of how housing with care for older adults must navigate between autonomy and support. • COVID-19 lockdowns challenged the independence and autonomy of older residents of housing with care in the UK. • Older adults in housing with care exercised autonomy through employing practices to maintain social connections. • Housing staff bolstered residents' autonomy, facilitated social interactions, and supported residents' wellbeing. • Housing staff faced challenges in maintaining the independent ethos of housing schemes whilst also protecting residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanisms through which most known Alzheimer's disease (AD) loci operate to increase AD risk remain unclear. Although Apolipoprotein E (APOE) is known to regulate lipid homeostasis, the effects of broader AD genetic liability on non-lipid metabolites remain unknown, and the earliest ages at which metabolic perturbations occur and how these change over time are yet to be elucidated. We examined the effects of AD genetic liability on the plasma metabolome across the life course. Using a reverse Mendelian randomization framework in two population-based cohorts [Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC, n = 5648) and UK Biobank (n ≤ 118,466)], we estimated the effects of genetic liability to AD on 229 plasma metabolites, at seven different life stages, spanning 8 to 73 years. We also compared the specific effects of APOE ε4 and APOE ε2 carriage on metabolites. In ALSPAC, AD genetic liability demonstrated the strongest positive associations with cholesterol-related traits, with similar magnitudes of association observed across all age groups including in childhood. In UK Biobank, the effect of AD liability on several lipid traits decreased with age. Fatty acid metabolites demonstrated positive associations with AD liability in both cohorts, though with smaller magnitudes than lipid traits. Sensitivity analyses indicated that observed effects are largely driven by the strongest AD instrument, APOE, with many contrasting effects observed on lipids and fatty acids for both ε4 and ε2 carriage. Our findings indicate pronounced effects of the ε4 and ε2 genetic variants on both pro- and anti-atherogenic lipid traits and sphingomyelins, which begin in childhood and either persist into later life or appear to change dynamically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the effects of long-term greenspace deprivation on sleep during adolescence. Using data from a UK birth cohort, we studied deviations from age-recommended sleep duration through Time Use Diaries. Our sample (N = 1370; 53% female) of urban adolescents had been exposed to the same levels of neighbourhood greenspace from birth up to age 14 years when their time use was tracked. We factored in sex and ethnicity, family income, long-term illness, sharing of a bedroom, access to a garden, as well as air pollution and perceived area safety. Even after full adjustment, there was a significant interaction between greenspace availability and income when predicting sleep duration, such that low-income adolescents living in the greyest urban areas were found to sleep more than the 8–10 h recommended for their age group, while the inverse was true for their counterparts living in areas with more greenspace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this article is to identify and compare the social media activity of Generation Z representatives in Poland and Great Britain in the context of customer orientation. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted among students in Poland and Great Britain in 2023. The study used a survey method, in particular using the CATI survey technique. Descriptive statistics measures were used to analyze the research data. Findings: The conducted research allowed us to identify the social media portals most frequently visited by Generation Z representatives, as well as the most frequently performed activities towards enterprises. Moreover, the relationship between respondents' answers and their gender and place of residence was examined. In several cases, gender and place of residence significantly differentiated the analyzed variables. The results also allowed us to identify differences in the social media activity of Generation Z representatives in Poland and in Great Britain. Research limitations/implications: The use of survey research is associated with limitations, including: the possibility of superficial knowledge of the studied phenomena, or respondents giving false answers. However, the relatively small number of respondents does not allow the obtained research results to be treated as representative. Future research should be conducted on a larger sample, and quantitative research should be supplemented with qualitative research. Undertaking research in other countries would make it possible to compare the social media activity undertaken by representatives of Generation Z different nationalities and determine whether and which of them occur regardless of geographical location. Practical implications: Understanding the activity of Generation Z representatives in social media will allow organizational employees to adjust their marketing activities to the expectations of this cohort. These activities, the aim of which is to reach the customer, provide him with information about the product, and encourage him to purchase, will ultimately translate into increased sales and profit of the organization. The obtained knowledge indicates that the nationality of respondents is an important factor differentiating activity in social media, which confirms the importance of diversifying marketing activities undertaken by organizations. Originality/value: The article is addressed to employees of organizations responsible for contact with representatives of Generation Z on social media. The presented results complement and deepen knowledge about the activity of Generation Z in social media, including differences in gender and place of residence of the respondent. They also indicate the influence of the nationality of Generation Z respondents on their activity in social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The result of the Brexit referendum and its effect on subsequent UK elections have attracted a large amount of media and scholarly interest, but there has been minimal research into gender and voting behaviour at the referendum. Similarly, gendered differences in Euroscepticism have had little attention. This article seeks to understand how attitudes towards the European Union vary by age and gender and whether such gender-age gaps are associated with gender differences in attributes known to predict European Union attitudes and support for Leave/Remain. The article finds a gender gap in Euroscepticism in under-45s and in Brexit vote choice in under-25s. It demonstrates that socioeconomic and value differences by gender are associated with the gender gap in younger age groups, but not older. As such differences seem likely to persist, this article suggests that gender divides will continue to have electoral and democratic consequences in the United Kingdom and across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematical and statistical models can be used to make predictions of how epidemics may progress in the near future and form a central part of outbreak mitigation and control. Renewal equation based models allow inference of epidemiological parameters from historical data and forecast future epidemic dynamics without requiring complex mechanistic assumptions. However, these models typically ignore interaction between age groups, partly due to challenges in parameterising a time varying interaction matrix. Social contact data collected regularly during the COVID-19 epidemic provide a means to inform interaction between age groups in real-time. We developed an age-specific forecasting framework and applied it to two age-stratified time-series: incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, estimated from a national infection and antibody prevalence survey; and, reported cases according to the UK national COVID-19 dashboard. Jointly fitting our model to social contact data from the CoMix study, we inferred a time-varying next generation matrix which we used to project infections and cases in the four weeks following each of 29 forecast dates between October 2020 and November 2021. We evaluated the forecasts using proper scoring rules and compared performance with three other models with alternative data and specifications alongside two naive baseline models. Overall, incorporating age interaction improved forecasts of infections and the CoMix-data-informed model was the best performing model at time horizons between two and four weeks. However, this was not true when forecasting cases. We found that age group interaction was most important for predicting cases in children and older adults. The contact-data-informed models performed best during the winter months of 2020–2021, but performed comparatively poorly in other periods. We highlight challenges regarding the incorporation of contact data in forecasting and offer proposals as to how to extend and adapt our approach, which may lead to more successful forecasts in future. Author summary: Short term epidemic forecasts help policy makers to plan and implement response activities. It can be useful to have such forecasts separately for different age groups, in order to reflect potential differences in transmission and incidence of infection between age groups as well as differences in risk of severe disease or death. A key challenge in developing age-specific models is understanding how different age-groups interact. We used data collected during a large-scale weekly survey of social contacts in the UK to inform this interaction in a model for short-term forecasts of COVID-19. To assess whether allowing interaction between age-groups and the use of contact data improved forecasts, we compared our forecasts to those from a set of models that either didn't use current contact data or treated each age group as a separate population. We found that including timely contact data improved predictions when forecasting two to four weeks into the future, but this improvement was not consistent throughout the epidemic. The best improvement was measured during a long national "lockdown". We also found that inclusion of age-group interaction and use of contact data were most important when forecasting infections in older adults and young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Ransomware is a relatively new form of financial extortion that is proving a major cyber-security threat to individuals and organisations. This study aims to investigate factors that may influence an individual's willingness to engage in a ransom payment. Design/methodology/approach: This study ran a large survey (n = 1,798) on a representative sample of the UK population. This study elicited willingness to pay (WTP) ransomware and also reasons for not wanting to pay a ransom to criminals. This study then used non-parametric tests and regression analysis to identify factors that influence WTP. Findings: This study finds that women and younger age groups are significantly more willing to pay a ransom, as are those who store photos. There is a strong positive relationship between concern for data breach and WTP a ransom. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first large scale study to look at WTP ransomware. This study identifies a range of factors that can help inform law enforcement to target advice about ransomware attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Existing evidence on the relationship between mode of delivery and offspring emotional and behavioural problems, especially in older age groups, is limited and inconsistent. This study aimed to examine the association between obstetric mode of delivery and emotional and behavioural problems in offspring aged 3–16 years. Methods: The sample for this study comprised participants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) in the United Kingdom. The study cohort ranged from 7074 (at 3 years of age) to 4071 (at 16 years of age) mother–offspring pairs. Data on obstetric mode of delivery were abstracted from obstetric records by trained research midwives and classified as spontaneous vaginal delivery, assisted vaginal delivery and caesarean delivery (elective and emergency). Offspring emotional and behavioural problems were measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) when the child was 3, 7, 9, 11, and 16 years. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine associations. Results: Assisted vaginal delivery was associated with an increased risk of emotional problems at age 11 years (OR = 1.42; 95% CI 1.11–1.81). No significant associations were observed at ages 3, 7, 9 and 16. We found no evidence of associations between caesarean delivery (elective or emergency) and emotional and behavioural measures in offspring across all age groups. Conclusion: Mode of delivery does not appear to be associated with emotional and behavioural problems in children and adolescents. Further research is needed to understand the potential longer-term effects of assisted vaginal deliveries on offspring emotional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether the perception–production link in phonological acquisition varies with stages of L2 development. It also examines whether the perception–production link for L2 vowels varies according to vowel properties, or whether the L2 vowels match or mismatch with L1 vowels. Korean learners of English in the UK were divided into more experienced and less experienced groups based on age of arrival and length of residence. The learners completed English vowel production, English vowel identification, and English–Korean vowel mapping tasks with English words (e.g., beat, bot). The intelligibility of their production and the accuracy of their vowel identification were assessed. Results show that only the more experienced learners' perception and production were significantly correlated. Among L2 Standard Southern British English vowels similar to L1 Korean vowels (/i, ʌ, u/) only /i/ showed a significant correlation between perception and production, while among L2 vowels dissimilar to L1 vowels (/eɪ, ɘʊ, ɑ, ɒ/) only /ɑ/ showed a negative correlation, indicating that the correlation varied with vowel properties. The study contributes to the L2 phonological acquisition literature by exploring the perception–production link in terms of different stages of L2 development and L2 vowel properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to investigate the association between interpregnancy interval (IPI) and parent-reported oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) in offspring at 7 and 10 years of age. We used data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), an ongoing population-based longitudinal study based in Bristol, United Kingdom (UK). Data included in the analysis consisted of more than 3200 mothers and their singleton children. The association between IPI and ODD was determined using a series of log-binomial regression analyses. We found that children of mothers with short IPI (<6 months) were 2.4 times as likely to have a diagnosis of ODD at 7 and 10 years compared to mothers with IPI of 18–23 months (RR = 2.45; 95%CI: 1.24–4.81 and RR = 2.40; 95% CI: 1.08–5.33), respectively. We found no evidence of associations between other IPI categories and risk of ODD in offspring in both age groups. Adjustment for a wide range of confounders, including maternal mental health, and comorbid ADHD did not alter the findings. This study suggests that the risk of ODD is higher among children born following short IPI (<6 months). Future large prospective studies are needed to elucidate the mechanisms explaining this association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to assess the trajectory of wellbeing and psychological distress in a UK sample by comparing data taken from the first and second UK lockdowns. Wellbeing (indexed via the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale) and psychological distress (indexed via the K10) were measured in two surveys in large online samples from Wales, UK. The first survey (n = 12,989) took place 11–16 weeks into the first UK lockdown and the second survey (n = 10,428) took place 4–11 weeks into the second UK lockdown. Levels of wellbeing were lower in the second survey compared to the first survey, which were already low compared to pre-pandemic data (2019). Clinically significant levels of psychological distress were found in 40.4% of participants in the second survey, representing a 9.8% increase in prevalence from the first survey. Poorer mental health was found in women, younger adults, and those from deprived areas. The greatest reduction in mental health was found in the youngest age group (16-24 years old). The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures taken to curb its spread continue to negatively impact the wellbeing of the UK population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The five-dimensional curiosity-scale revised (5DCR) by Kashdan et al. (2020) is the most comprehensive curiosity inventory available to date. 5DCR measures six facets of curiosity with four items each. Here, we present a German-language adaptation of the 5DCR and comprehensively validate this adaptation in a diverse sample of adults from Germany (N = 486). Moreover, we provide new evidence on the original English-language 5DCR in a parallel sample from the UK (N = 483). In both countries, we investigate the six facets' reliability, factorial validity, and convergent and discriminant validity with a large set of individual-differences constructs. In addition, we analyze the measurement invariance of the curiosity facets across the UK and Germany and across socio-demographic subgroups defined by age, sex, and education. Findings demonstrate that the new German-language adaptation of 5DCR and its English-language source version show psychometric properties similar to the original studies by Kashdan et al. (2020) in the United States. All six curiosity facets reach at least partial scalar invariance across cultures, sex, education, and mostly also across age groups. The findings support the six-faceted theory of curiosity and show that 5DCR allows for a valid assessment of curiosity across cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute hepatitis has always been a public health concern, but the recent clustering of cases in various parts of the world has drawn some special attention. The sudden rise in cases has mainly been among the pediatric population of around 35 countries around the world, including developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and European countries. The outbreaks have had a devastating impact, with around 10% of the affected patients developing liver failure. The clinical presentation of patients resembles any other case of acute hepatitis, with the major symptoms being: jaundice (68.8%), vomiting (57.6%), and gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal pain (36.1%) and nausea (25.7%). Interestingly, the cases have tested negative for hepatotropic viruses Hep A, B, C, and E, thus giving rise to the terms Hepatitis of Unknown Origin or non-HepA–E hepatitis. Many causes have been attributed to the disease, with major evidence seen for adenovirus and SARS-CoV-2. International agencies have stressed on establishing diagnostic and management protocols to limit these outbreaks. As the understanding has evolved over time, diagnostic and management faculties have found more shape. The current review was designed to comprehensively compile all existing data and whittle it down to evidence-based conclusions to help clinicians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the association between partisanship and vaccination in the UK. The lower vaccination rates among Republicans in the US have been linked to ideology and President Trump's anti-vaccination rhetoric. By contrast, both ruling and opposition parties in the UK promoted the national vaccination program. Using two datasets at constituency and individual levels, we analyse whether there are partisan differences in uptake when vaccination garners cross-party support. Our findings contrast in important ways from the US case. First, the correlation between partisanship and vaccination is the opposite to that of the US: both Conservative constituencies and individuals are associated with higher vaccination rates than Labour across almost all age groups. Thus, right-leaning individuals do not necessarily vaccinate less, at least when their political party is in power and supportive of vaccination. Second, partisanship alone accounts for a large share of variation in vaccination rates, but this association appears largely driven by socio-economic and demographic differences: older and economically better off individuals and constituencies tend to be more vaccinated. Once these controls are included, the correlation between Conservative partisanship and vaccination shrinks substantially. Hence, the ideological source of the partisan gap in vaccination rates appears smaller than in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study uses three linked datasets to provide an estimate of incidence of motor neuron disease (MND) in England from 1998 to 2019. Comparison is made to previous British studies. It examines age at diagnosis and ethnicity of those affected. Methods: The literature was searched for studies of MND incidence in Great Britain from 1995 to date. The QResearch and linked Hospital Episode Statistics and Death register databases were searched from 1998 to 2019 for cases of MND, and incidence calculated from 16.8 million adults and 112 million adult years of data. Results: We found 6437 adults with a diagnosis of MND giving an incidence of MND of 5.69/100,000 person years (95% CI 5.51–5.88); 6.57 (6.41–6.99) in men and 4.72 (4.49–4.97) in women when age-standardized to the 2011 UK population. The median age of diagnosis was 72 years. Peak incidence occurred in the 80–84 year age group in men and 75–79 in women. Age-standardized incidence was as high in Bangladeshi, Black Caribbean, Indian, other Asian and Pakistani people as in White people. Black African and Chinese people had a lower incidence. Conclusion: The use of three linked national datasets captured 33% more people than a primary care dataset alone. Patients were older than in previous studies and rates were high in all ethnic groups studied except Black African and Chinese people. We present the highest incidence of MND reported globally in the past 50 years. Methodological differences may in part explain differences with previous reports. The use of national datasets may have captured additional MND patients with serious comorbidities who have not seen a neurologist before death. A limitation of this approach is that unlike population registers, which minimize false positive diagnosis by neurologist review of each patient, we cannot review diagnosis for individuals as data are anonymized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social cognition refers to a broad range of cognitive processes and skills that allow individuals to interact with and understand others, including a variety of skills from infancy through preschool and beyond, e.g., joint attention, imitation, and belief understanding. However, no measures examine socio-cognitive development from birth through preschool. Current test batteries and parent-report measures focus either on infancy, or toddlerhood through preschool (and beyond). We report six studies in which we developed and tested a new 21-item parent-report measure of social cognition targeting 0–47 months: the Early Social Cognition Inventory (ESCI). Study 1 (N = 295) revealed the ESCI has excellent internal reliability, and a two-factor structure capturing social cognition and age. Study 2 (N = 605) also showed excellent internal reliability and confirmed the two-factor structure. Study 3 (N = 84) found a medium correlation between the ESCI and a researcher-administered social cognition task battery. Study 4 (N = 46) found strong 1-month test–retest reliability. Study 5 found longitudinal stability (6 months: N = 140; 12 months: N = 39), and inter-observer reliability between parents (N = 36) was good, and children's scores increased significantly over 6 and 12 months. Study 6 showed the ESCI was internally reliable within countries (Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Trinidad and Tobago); parent ethnicity; parent education; and age groups from 4–39 months. ESCI scores positively correlated with household income (UK); children with siblings had higher scores; and Australian parents reported lower scores than American, British, and Canadian parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SARS-COV-2 is a deadly virus which emerged in China in late 2019. In this article, the difference in European variant (2nd wave) and UK variant (3rd wave) of COVID-19 in Pakistan was investigated. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique was applied to evaluate the difference in gene sequence of both the variants. The UK variant (3rd wave) was more terrible due to its resistance and genomic mutation. When performed PCR in both the waves, there was nucleocapsid protein (N gene) in UK variant while envelop protein (E) was more prominent in European variant after ORF 1ab in both the strains. People of all age groups were tested and was reported that aged individuals were at more risk of infection as compared to young ones. Similarly females were having more immunity in defence against COVID-19 infection as compared to males that increased more risk of infection to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2002, Diabetic Retinopathy was reported as the leading cause of blindness in the working age group. The introduction of systematic screening programs in the UK has reduced visual loss and blindness due to diabetic retinopathy, but it does still occur with catastrophic consequences for the individual. The author conducted an ongoing search for articles relating to diabetic retinopathy since 2000 utilizing Zetoc Alert with keywords and contents page lists from relevant journals. This review covers the risk factors for loss of vision due to diabetic retinopathy and discusses ways in which the awareness of these risk factors can be used to further reduce visual loss. Some risk factors such as glycemic and B/P control are well known from landmark trials. This review has included these factors but concentrated more on the evidence behind those risk factors that are not so clearly defined or so well known. The major risk factors are well known, but one continues to find that people with diabetes lose vision in situations in which a better awareness of the risks by both the individual with diabetes and the health workers involved may have prevented the visual loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study provides Dutch national norms for the parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for children aged 3-14 years, and assesses the test performance of the SDQ Total Difficulties Scale (TDS) and impairment Scale. We further compared Dutch SDQ norms with those of the United Kingdom (UK), to determine potential variation in country-specific norms.Study Design: We analyzed data of 3384 children aged 3 to 14 years. The data were obtained in schools, and in the context of Preventive Child Healthcare. Parents completed the SDQ parent form and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). We determined clinical (10% elevated scores) and borderline (20% elevated scores) SDQ TDS norms. We assessed the test performance (validity) of the SDQ TDS and Impairment Score using the CBCL as criterion.Results: The clinical SDQ TDS norms varied between > 10 and > 14 depending on the age group. The SDQ TDS discriminated between children with and without problems, as measured by the CBCL, for all age groups (AUCs varied from 0.92 to 0.96). The SDQ Impairment Score had added value (beyond the SDQ TDS) only for the age group 12-14 years. For the Netherlands we found lower clinical SDQ TDS norms than those previously reported for the UK (i.e. > 16).Conclusion: The clinical SDQ TDS norms varied between > 10 and > 14 depending on the age groups. We found good test performance at these proposed norms. Dutch norms differed somewhat from UK norms. In the Netherlands, the SDQ performed better with Dutch-specific norms than with UK-specific norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labelling is a globally recommended strategy to encourage healthier food choices. We evaluated the effect of FOP labels on the perceived healthfulness of a sweetened fruit drink in an international sample of adult consumers.Design: Six-arm randomised controlled experiment to examine the impact of FOP labels (no label control, Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA), Multiple Traffic Lights, the Health Star Ratings (HSR), Health Warning Labels, and 'High-in' Warning Labels (HIWL)) on the perceived healthfulness of the drink. Linear regression models by country examined healthfulness perceptions on FOP nutrition labels, testing for interactions by demographic characteristics.Setting: Online survey in 2018 among participants from Australia, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom (UK) and United States.Participants: Adults (≥18 years, n 22 140).Results: Compared with control, HIWL had the greatest impact in lowering perceived healthfulness (β from -0·62 to -1·71) across all countries. The HIWL and the HSR had a similar effect in Australia. Other labels were effective in decreasing the perceived healthfulness of the drink within some countries only, but to a lower extent. The GDA did not reduce perceived healthfulness in most countries. In the UK, the effect of HIWL differed by age group, with greater impact among older participants (> 40 years). There were no other variations across key demographic characteristics.Conclusions: HIWL, which communicates clear, non-quantitative messages about high levels of nutrients of concern, demonstrated the greatest efficacy to decrease the perceived healthfulness of a sweetened fruit drink across countries. This effect was similar across demographic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of prerelease consumer buzz (PRCB) is a relatively new phenomenon. It is the excitement generated by consumers in anticipation of a forthcoming new product, film, song, or play. The PRCB is closely associated with information cascades because the buzz generated can be a mechanism for driving consumers to experience the said new product. Earlier research has called for scholars to test the pervasiveness of the concept, but there is also concern that current studies only adopt a national overview. We have addressed these concerns using a large original dataset, collected weekly for approximately 1 year. We analyze the determinants of information cascades and PRCB by considering films premiered in the USA and the UK. More specifically, we examine online user ratings by differing demographic clusters of the population (by sex and age) and through the qualitative characteristics of films (i.e., genre). Our results demonstrate that males between the ages of 18–29-years are more compliant to information cascades and expert reviewers are more likely to instigate herding behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The use of prescription drugs with anticholinergic properties has been associated with multiple negative health outcomes in older people. Moreover, recent evidence suggests that associated adverse effects may occur even decades after stopping anticholinergic use. Despite the implicated importance of examining longitudinal patterns of anticholinergic prescribing for different age groups, few such data are available. Methods: We performed an age‐period‐cohort (APC) analysis to study trends in an aggregate measure of anticholinergic burden between the years 1990 and 2015, utilising data from >220 000 UK Biobank participants with linked prescription data from primary care. Results: Anticholinergic burden in the sample increased up to 9‐fold over 25 years and was observed for both period and age effects across most classes of drugs. The greatest increase was seen in the prescribing of antidepressants. Female sex, lower education and greater deprivation were associated with greater anticholinergic burden. Conclusions: The increase in anticholinergic prescribing is mostly due to an increase in polypharmacy and is attributable to both ageing of participants and period‐related changes in prescribing practices. Research is needed to clarify the implications of rising anticholinergic use for public health and to contextualise this rise in light of other relevant prescribing practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on public opinion and empirical research, one may advise people to participate in voluntary organizations because voluntary participation can improve their mental health and social well-being. However, do such benefits apply across different types of participation and across the life course? In this study, we investigated whether benefits to mental health and social well-being differ between nonpolitical and political participation and across age groups (preregistration is accessible at https://osf.io/kqcbe). Using 25 waves of data from the British Household Panel Survey and the Understanding Society (1991–2016), we conducted multilevel analyses with observations nested within participants in younger (14–29, n = 10,536), middle-aged (40–50, n = 4,955), and older (65–75, n = 3,059) adults. We used life satisfaction and GHQ-12 scores as measures of mental health, and social support and neighborhood belonging as measures of social well-being. We found only few and small significant effects at the within-person level: On occasions when younger adults reported political participation, they reported slightly higher neighborhood belonging than when they did not. On occasions when older adults reported nonpolitical or political participation, they reported slightly higher life satisfaction than when they did not. However, we found no significant differences between nonpolitical and political participation and among age groups. In sum, our findings qualify the opinion that voluntary participation yields significant benefits to engaged individuals. We discuss potential explanations, including characteristics of political participation in the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores whether environmental scientists perceive their male and female peers differently when making statements in the media including policy advocacy. Environmental scientists in the United Kingdom were provided with a media statement by a fictitious scientist containing a mixture of scientific information and advocacy, and asked to rate the statement against various attributes. Attributes were designed to represent stereotypes associated with male and female tendencies, and with science (impartial objectivity) and the media (dramatic narrative). The statements were randomly assigned to one of two male and two female scientists. Where the statements were attributed to a female scientist, male environmental scientists rated the fictitious scientist as significantly more 'dramatic' and 'biased' than their female counterparts did. These gendered attributes are typically held as contrary to the norms of science, suggesting an implicit bias among male scientists when reviewing their female peers' media statements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]