How to increase COVID-19 vaccination among a population with persistently suboptimal vaccine uptake? Evidence from the North Macedonia mobile vaccination and public health advice caravan.

Over three years since the first COVID-19 vaccine was approved, many countries still have suboptimal vaccination rates despite holding great amounts of vaccines. Overall, there is little evidence on which policies are more effective to encourage vaccination, particularly in countries where a large share of the population remains unvaccinated. In this study, we examine the effectiveness of a community-based intervention carried out in March 2022 in North Macedonia, a country with a large and persistent share of the population that remains unvaccinated.

Health and labor market effects of an unanticipated rise in retirement age. Evidence from the 2012 Italian pension reform.

As retirement ages increase around the world, not all workers may be equally able to extend their working lives. In this article, we examine the health and labor market effects of an Italian pension reform that suddenly increased the normal retirement age up to 7 years for women and up to 2 years for men. To do this, we use linked labor and healthcare administrative data, jointly with survey data and difference-in-difference methods.

The far-right and anti-vaccine attitudes: lessons from Spain's mass COVID-19 vaccine roll-out.

Background: Far-right politicians in several countries have been vocal opponents of COVID-19 vaccination. But can this threaten vaccine roll-out?

Methods: We take advantage of repeated cross-sectional surveys with samples of around 3800 individuals across Spain conducted monthly from December 2020 to January 2022 (n = 51 294) to examine any association between far-right politics and vaccine hesitancy through the whole vaccine roll-out.

Results: Consistent with prior data, we found that far-right supporters were almost twice as likely to be vaccine-hesitant than the overall population in December 2020, before vaccines became available.

Do missing teeth cause early-onset cognitive impairment? Re-examining the evidence using a quasi-natural experiment.

Purpose: Multiple studies have reported a positive association between missing teeth and cognitive impairment. While some authors have postulated causal mechanisms, existing designs preclude assessing this.

Methods: We sought evidence of a causal effect of missing teeth on early-onset cognitive impairment in a natural experiment, using differential exposure to fluoridated water during critical childhood years (ages 5-20 years) in England as the instrument.

Effects of long-term care benefits on healthcare utilization in Catalonia.

This paper estimates effects of long-term care (LTC) benefits on utilization of primary and secondary healthcare in Catalonia (Spain). Identification comes from plausibly exogenous variation in the leniency of LTC needs assessment. We estimate that receiving LTC benefits worth 365 euros per month, on average, reduces the probability of avoidable hospital admissions by 66%, and has no significant effect on planned hospitalisations nor on hospitalisation for any reason.

Impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on mental health: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in England and Scotland.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with worsening mental health but it is unclear whether this is a direct consequence of containment measures, like "Stay at Home" orders, or due to other considerations, such as fear and uncertainty about becoming infected. It is also unclear how responsive mental health is to a changing situation. Exploiting the different policy responses to COVID-19 in England and Scotland and using a difference-in-difference analysis, we show that easing lockdown measures rapidly improves mental health.

Effect of a national primary care reform on avoidable hospital admissions (2000-2015): A difference-in-difference analysis.

In 2006 a major primary care reform was initiated in Portugal. The most significant aspect of this reform was the creation of a new organizational model of primary care provision: Family Health Units (FHUs), consisting of small voluntarily constituted multidisciplinary teams that have functional autonomy and are partly financed through capitation and pay-for-performance. The creation of FHUs sought to increase access to care and to chronic disease management by improving the long-term relationship between health professionals and patients.

Tobacco control policies and smoking among older adults: a longitudinal analysis of 10 European countries.

Background And Aims: The impact of tobacco control on European older adults has not been studied, despite evidence that smoking cessation at old age can bring significant life expectancy gains. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of tobacco control policies on smoking among older adults in Europe from 2004 to 2013.

Design: We used longitudinal data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE, aged 50+ years) from four waves from 2004 to 2013.

Ageing under unequal circumstances: a cross-sectional analysis of the gender and socioeconomic patterning of functional limitations among the Southern European elderly.

Background: In a context of population ageing, it is a priority for planning and prevention to understand the socioeconomic (SE) patterning of functional limitations and its consequences on healthcare needs. This paper aims at measuring the gender and SE inequalities in functional limitations and their age of onset among the Southern European elderly; then, we evaluate how functional status is linked to formal and informal care use.

Methods: We used Portuguese, Italian and Spanish data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) of 2011 (n = 9233).