Self-administered sexual health testing in an open prison setting: a pilot health impact assessment and social return on investment analysis.

Purpose: The sexual health of the male prison population is often among the poorest in a country. This paper aims to identify the wider health impacts and social value of a sexual health self-sampling programme offered to male prisoners in an open prison setting in Wales.

Design/methodology/approach: This study applied a unique pilot approach of using Health Impact Assessment and Social Return on Investment Frameworks in tandem.

Identifying reasons for non-acceptance of influenza vaccine in healthcare workers: an observational study using declination form data.

Background: Healthcare workers are sometimes required to complete a declination form if they choose not to accept the influenza vaccine. We analysed the declination data with the goal of identifying barriers to vaccination uptake across seasons, staff groups, and pre- and post- arrival of COVID-19.

Methods: Reasons for declining the vaccine were gathered from N = 2230 declination forms, collected over four influenza seasons, 2017/2018, 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021, from a single health board in the UK.

Mental health of the nursing and midwifery workforce in Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional analysis.

Background: The mental health of the nursing and midwifery workforce in the UK became a public health concern before the COVID-19 pandemic. Poor mental health is a known factor for those considering leaving the profession, and workforce retention of younger members is crucial for the future of the sector. The aim of this study was to provide up-to-date estimates of mental wellbeing in this workforce in Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 myth-busting: an experimental study.

Background: COVID-19 misinformation is a danger to public health. A range of formats are used by health campaigns to correct beliefs but data on their effectiveness is limited. We aimed to identify A) whether three commonly used myth-busting formats are effective for correcting COVID-19 myths, immediately and after a delay, and B) which is the most effective.

Causal overstatements reduced in press releases following academic study of health news.

Exaggerations in health news were previously found to strongly associate with similar exaggerations in press releases. Moreover such exaggerations did not appear to attract more news. Here we assess whether press release practice changed after these reported findings; simply drawing attention to the issue may be insufficient for practical change, given the challenges of media environments.

The association between exaggeration in health-related science news and academic press releases: a replication study.

Exaggerations in health news were previously found to strongly associate with similar exaggerations in press releases. Moreover, such press release exaggerations did not appear to attract more news. Here we tested the replicability of these findings in a new cohort of news and press releases based on research in UK universities in 2014 and 2015.

Expert quotes and exaggeration in health news: a retrospective quantitative content analysis.

This research is an investigation into the role of expert quotes in health news, specifically whether news articles containing a quote from an independent expert are less often exaggerated than articles without such a quote. Retrospective quantitative content analysis of journal articles, press releases, and associated news articles was performed. The investigated sample are press releases on peer-reviewed health research and the associated research articles and news stories.

Caveats in science-based news stories communicate caution without lowering interest.

Science stories in the media are strongly linked to changes in health-related behavior. Science writers (including journalists, press officers, and researchers) must therefore frame their stories to communicate scientific caution without disrupting coherence and disengaging the reader. In this study we investigate whether caveats ("Further research is needed to validate the results") satisfy this dual requirement.

Co-creating a knowledge base in the "22q11.2 deletion syndrome" community.

22q11.2 DS is characterised by its variability, rarity and variety of features ranging from congenital heart conditions to psychiatric and behavioural issues. As a result, health information-seeking behaviour is different from other more common conditions.

Claims of causality in health news: a randomised trial.

Background: Misleading news claims can be detrimental to public health. We aimed to improve the alignment between causal claims and evidence, without losing news interest (counter to assumptions that news is not interested in communicating caution).

Methods: We tested two interventions in press releases, which are the main sources for science and health news: (a) aligning the headlines and main causal claims with the underlying evidence (strong for experimental, cautious for correlational) and (b) inserting explicit statements/caveats about inferring causality.