How much of the stalled mortality trends in Scotland and England can be attributed to obesity?

Objectives: The rate of improvement in all-cause mortality rates has slowed in the UK since around 2012. While evidence suggests that UK Government 'austerity' policies have been largely responsible, it has been proposed that rising obesity may also have contributed. The aim here was to estimate this contribution for Scotland and England.

Effect of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic on the Quality of Stroke Care in Stroke Units and Alternative Wards: A National Comparative Analysis.

Background And Purpose: Changes to hospital systems were implemented from March 2020 in Australia in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, including decreased resources allocated to stroke units. We investigate changes in the quality of acute care for patients with stroke or transient ischemic attack during the pandemic according to patients' treatment setting (stroke unit or alternate ward).

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients admitted with stroke or transient ischemic attack between January 2019 and June 2020 in the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry (AuSCR).

COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Care for Stroke in Australia: Emerging Evidence From the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry.

We present information on acute stroke care for the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia using data from the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry (AuSCR). The first case of COVID-19 in Australia was recorded in late January 2020 and national restrictions to control the virus commenced in March. To account for seasonal effects of stroke admissions, patient-level data from the registry from January to June 2020 were compared to the same period in 2019 (historical-control) from 61 public hospitals.

What causes the burden of stroke in Scotland? A comparative risk assessment approach linking the Scottish Health Survey to administrative health data.

Background: The availability of robust evidence to inform effective public health decision making is becoming increasingly important, particularly in a time of competing health demands and limited resources. Comparative Risk Assessments (CRA) are useful in this regard as they quantify the contribution of modifiable exposures to the disease burden in a population. The aim of this study is to assess the contribution of a range of modifiable exposures to the burden of disease due to stroke, an important public health problem in Scotland.

Trends and inequalities in the burden of mortality in Scotland 2000-2015.

Background: Cause-specific mortality trends are routinely reported for Scotland. However, ill-defined deaths are not routinely redistributed to more precise and internationally comparable categories nor is the mortality reported in terms of years of life lost to facilitate the calculation of the burden of disease. This study describes trends in Years of Life Lost (YLL) for specific causes of death in Scotland from 2000 to 2015.

Obesity in Scotland: a persistent inequality.

Background: Obesity is a health problem in its own right and a risk factor for other conditions such as cardiovascular disease. The prevalence of overweight and obesity increased in Scotland between 1995 and 2008 with socio-economic inequalities persisting in adults over time and increasing in children. This paper explores changes in the underlying distribution of body mass index (BMI) which is less well understood.

Problems of cervical cancer screening programmes.

The feasibility of using an age-sex register as a basis for a cervical cancer screening programme was investigated in a London practice serving both inner city and suburban populations. Only about 25% of 810 women aged 35-59 years who had not recently been screened responded to an invitation to attend a practice well woman clinic for a cervical smear. Nearly 30% of the invitations were returned ;not known at this address' and there was no reply from the remaining 45%.