Relative poverty still matters

No abstract available

School and local authority characteristics associated with take-up of free school meals in Scottish secondary schools, 2014

School meals are an important state-delivered mechanism for improving children’s diets. Scottish local authorities have a statutory duty to provide free school meals (FSM) to families meeting means-testing criteria. Inevitably take-up of FSM does not reach 100%. Explanations put forward to explain this include social stigma, as well as a more general dissatisfaction amongst pupils about lack of modern facilities and meal quality, and a preference to eat where friends are eating. This study investigated characteristics associated with take-up across Scottish secondary schools in 2013–2014 using multilevel modelling techniques. Results suggest that stigma, food quality and the ability to eat with friends are associated with greater take-up. Levels of school modernisation appeared less important, as did differences between more urban or rural areas. Future studies should focus on additional school-level variables to identify characteristics associated with take-up, with the aim of reducing the number of registered pupils not taking-up FSM

A comparison of the Scottish index of multiple deprivation (SIMD) 2004 with the 2009 + 1 SIMD: does choice of measure affect the interpretation of inequality in mortality?

Background There is a growing international literature assessing inequalities in health and mortality by area based measures. However, there are few works comparing measures available to inform research design. The analysis here seeks to begin to address this issue by assessing whether there are important differences in the relationship between deprivation and inequalities in mortality when measures that have been constructed at different time points are compared. Methods We contrast whether the interpretation of inequalities in all-cause mortality between the years 2008-10 changes in Scotland if we apply the earliest (2004) and the 2009 + 1 releases of the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) to make this comparison. The 2004 release is based on data from 2001/2 and the 2009 + 1 release is based on data from 2008/9. The slope index of inequality (SII) and 1:10 ratio are used to summarise inequalities standardised by age/sex using population and mortality records. Results The 1:10 ratio suggests some differences in the magnitude of inequalities measured using SIMD at different time points. However, the SII shows much closer correspondence. Conclusions Overall the findings show that substantive conclusions in relation to inequalities in all-cause mortality are little changed by the updated measure. This information is beneficial to researchers as the most recent measures are not always available. This adds to the body of literature showing stability in inequalities in health and mortality by geographical deprivation over time.</p

Are changes in neighbourhood perceptions associated with changes in self-rated mental health in adults? A 13 year repeat cross-sectional study, UK

The aim of this study was to examine changes in neighbourhood perceptions on self-rated mental health problems over time, and to explore demographic, geographic and socio-economic factors as determinants of increased or decreased anxiety and depression symptoms. We conducted a repeat cross-sectional study of individuals (N: 4480) living in the same areas of west central Scotland in 1997 and 2010. Individuals were asked to complete a questionnaire at both time-points, containing 14 questions relating to neighbourhood perceptions and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). A three-level linear regression model was fitted to HADS scores and changes in neighbourhood perceptions over time; controlling for a number of individual and area-level variables. Overall, area-level mean HADS scores decreased from 1997 to 2010. When adjusted for individual and area-level variables, this decrease did not remain for HADS anxiety. Applying an overall 14-scale neighbourhood perception measure, worsening neighbourhood perceptions were associated with small increases in depression (0.04, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.01 to 0.07) and anxiety (0.04, 95% CI 0.00 to 0.08) scores over time. This highlights a need for local and national policy to target areas where neighbourhood characteristics are substantially deteriorating in order to ensure the mental health of individuals does not worsen

The Scottish school leavers cohort: linkage of education data to routinely collected records for mortality, hospital discharge and offspring birth characteristics

Purpose: The Scottish school leavers cohort provides population-wide prospective follow-up of local authority secondary school leavers in Scotland through linkage of comprehensive education data with hospital and mortality records. It considers educational attainment as a proxy for socioeconomic position in young adulthood and enables the study of associations and causal relationships between educational attainment and health outcomes in young adulthood. Participants: Education data for 284 621 individuals who left a local authority secondary school during 2006/2007–2010/2011 were linked with birth, death and hospital records, including general/acute and mental health inpatient and day case records. Individuals were followed up from date of school leaving until September 2012. Age range during follow-up was 15 years to 24 years. Findings: to date Education data included all formal school qualifications attained by date of school leaving; sociodemographic information; indicators of student needs, educational or non-educational support received and special school unit attendance; attendance, absence and exclusions over time and school leaver destination. Area-based measures of school and home deprivation were provided. Health data included dates of admission/discharge from hospital; principal/secondary diagnoses; maternal-related, birth-related and baby-related variables and, where relevant, date and cause of death. This paper presents crude rates for all-cause and cause-specific deaths and general/acute and psychiatric hospital admissions as well as birth outcomes for children of female cohort members. Future plans: This study is the first in Scotland to link education and health data for the population of local authority secondary school leavers and provides access to a large, representative cohort with the ability to study rare health outcomes. There is the potential to study health outcomes over the life course through linkage with future hospital and death records for cohort members. The cohort may also be expanded by adding data from future school leavers. There is scope for linkage to the Prescribing Information System and the Scottish Primary Care Information Resource

Carstairs Scores for Scottish Postcode Sectors, Datazones and Output Areas from the 2011 Census

Carstairs deprivation scores, originally created in 1981, provide a measure of material deprivation. Four census variables (male unemployment, no car ownership, overcrowding and low social class) were used in the creation of the score. As near as possible the same four variables have been used to update Carstairs scores decennially, despite changes to the definition of some of the variables over time. Researchers at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow have now updated Carstairs scores for 2011 for Scottish postcode sectors and for the first time datazones and output areas

Declining cardiovascular mortality masks unpalatable inequalities

No abstract available

Effects of restrictions to Income Support on health of lone mothers in the UK: a natural experiment study

Background: In the UK, lone parents must seek work as a condition of receiving welfare benefits once their youngest child reaches a certain age. Since 2008, the lower age limit at which these Lone Parent Obligations (LPO) apply has been reduced in steps. We used data from a nationally representative, longitudinal, household panel study to analyse the health effects of increased welfare conditionality under LPO. Methods: From the Understanding Society survey, we used data for lone mothers who were newly exposed to LPO when the age cutoff was reduced from 7 to 5 years in 2012 (intervention group 1) and from 10 to 7 years in 2010 (intervention group 2), as well as lone mothers who remained unexposed (control group 1) or continuously exposed (control group 2) at those times. We did difference-in-difference analyses that controlled for differences in the fixed characteristics of participants in the intervention and control groups to estimate the effect of exposure to conditionality on the health of lone mothers. Our primary outcome was the difference in change over time between the intervention and control groups in scores on the Mental Component Summary (MCS) of the 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12). Findings: The mental health of lone mothers declined in the intervention groups compared with the control groups. For intervention group 1, scores on the MCS decreased by 1·39 (95% CI −1·29 to 4·08) compared with control group 1 and by 2·29 (0·00 to 4·57) compared with control group 2. For intervention group 2, MCS scores decreased by 2·45 (−0·57 to 5·48) compared with control group 1 and by 1·28 (−1·45 to 4·00) compared with control group 2. When pooling the two intervention groups, scores on the MCS decreased by 2·13 (0·10 to 4·17) compared with control group 1 and 2·21 (0·30 to 4·13) compared with control group 2. Interpretation: Stringent conditions for receiving welfare benefits are increasingly common in high-income countries. Our results suggest that requiring lone parents with school-age children toseek work as a condition of receiving welfare benefits adversely affects their mental health. Funding: UK Medical Research Council, Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office, and National Health Service Research Scotland

Interview with Carl Dundas: Commonwealth Oral History Project

Interview with Carl Dundas, conducted 10 February 2015 in Milton Keynes as part of the Commonwealth Oral History Project. The project aims to produce a unique digital research resource on the oral history of the Commonwealth since 1965 through sixty oral history interviews with leading figures in the recent history of the organisation. It will provide an essential research tool for anyone investigating the history of the Commonwealth and will serve to promote interest in and understanding of the organisation. Biography: Dundas, Carl. Educated in London and called to the bar at Gray’s Inn. Appointed Legal Counsel and Director of Legal Division of the Caribbean Community, 1973. Technical Legal Advisor to Joint Selection Committee on Constitutional and Electoral Reform, Jamaica. First Director of Elections in Jamaica, 1979-80. Joined Commonwealth Secretariat as Special Legal Adviser in 1980. Leader of Commonwealth Secretariat Electoral Technical Assistance Missions to Guyana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Sierra Leone. Leader of Commonwealth Secretariat Support Team to Observer Groups in Malaysia (1990), Zambia (1991), Kenya (1992), Guyana (1992 & 1997), Malawi (1994), Mozambique (1994), Tanzania (1995), Tanzania (2000), Trinidad & Tobago (2000). Retired from Secretariat in 2001. Election Legal Consultant, 2001-06, advising election management bodies in Antigua and Barbuda, Botswana, Cayman Islands, Guyana, Indonesia, Lesotho, Liberia, Nigeria and Tanzania. Chairman of the Electoral Boundary Delimitation Commission, Cayman Islands, 2003 and 2010

How successful was the English teenage pregnancy strategy? Response to Wellings K, Palmer MJ, Gear RS et al. Changes in conceptions in women younger than 18 years and the circumstances of young mothers in England in 2000-12: an observational study

Kaye Wellings and colleagues' paper (Aug 6, p 586)1 and accompanying Comment2 ascribe the fall in teenage pregnancies in England since 1998 to the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy published in 1999. Unlike the interim assessment by the same authors,3 the paper draws no parallels with other UK countries, but a comparison with trends in conceptions among 15–17 year olds in Wales and Scotland raises questions about how far the fall can be attributed to the strategy (figure).4,