Understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a socially deprived UK coastal town: a preliminary exploratory analysis of health and socioeconomic data

Introduction In addition to the direct impact of COVID-19 infections on health and mortality, a growing body of literature indicates there are wide-ranging indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health measures on population health and wellbeing. Exploring these indirect impacts in the context of a socially deprived UK coastal town will help identify priority areas to focus COVID-19 recovery efforts on. Methods Data on primary care diagnosis, hospital admissions, and several socioeconomic outcomes between 2016 and Spring 2021 in the UK town of Fleetwood were collected and analysed in an exploratory analysis looking at pre- and post- COVID-19 patterns in health and social outcomes. Weekly and monthly trends were plotted by time and differences between periods examined using Chi-squared and t-tests. Results Initial falls in hospital admissions and diagnoses of conditions in primary care in March 2020 were followed by sustained changes to health service activity for specific diagnostic and demographic groups, including for chronic kidney disease and young people. Increases in the number of people receiving Universal Credit and children eligible for free school meals appear to be greater for those in the least deprived areas of the town. Discussion These exploratory findings provide initial evidence of the sustained impact of the pandemic across several health and social outcomes. Examining these trends in multivariate analyses will further test these associations and establish the strength of the medium term impact of the pandemic on the population of this coastal town. Advanced modelling of this data is ongoing and will be published shortly.

Systematic Review of Differences in Socioeconomic Outcomes of Attractiveness Between Men and Women

According to the general understanding, the link between physical appearance and social inequalities is well-known: attractiveness is considered an asset and plainness a hindrance in life. However, research on the subject paints a far more complex picture. The economic outcomes of attractiveness for men and for women appear to vary depending on the occupational field and cultural context studied. Previous studies show, for example that attractive women may be penalized in male-dominated occupational fields. To clarify the picture of the relation between attractiveness and economic inequalities, we conducted a systematic review focusing on the relation between attractiveness and gendered economic benefits and disadvantages in working life. Earlier reviews on the subject provide contradictory results and plenty of new research have been published since, which invites to a novel revision of the existing literature. After wading through five databases and filtering all the matching articles, we included a total of 58 articles for review. The preliminary results support the lay knowledge that, in general, more attractive individuals are economically favoured in working life. However, while the economic outcomes are somewhat consistent for men, the outcomes for women appear more inconsistent: only women get both rewarded and penalized for being attractive. We interpret the results more in-depth by reviewing the occupation-, culture-, time- and method -specific results in order to elucidate the mechanisms behind attractiveness-based inequalities in working life. We conclude that contextual factors matter in attractiveness-related outcomes, i.e. to what extent attractiveness brings positive and/or negative returns, especially for women.

How Can Collaborative Circular Economy Practices in Modular Construction Help Fédération Internationale de Football Association World Cup Qatar 2022 to Achieve Its Quest for Sustainable Development and Ecological Systems?

Embarking on the World Cup journey with circular collaborative strategies can positively impact the environment and socioeconomic outcomes to prosper development at the center of sustainability. World Cup mega-events are set with overriding priorities in cutting down environmental footprints to accelerate sustainable development across the Fédération Internationale de Football Association movement to leave an enduring legacy post-event in global sports. This paper conducts the first of its kind comprehensive critical analysis on ecological quality in life cycle impact assessment for 2022 Fédération Internationale de Football Association World Cup modular container stadiums in Qatar. A “cradle-to-cradle” life cycle assessment, including the material and resource production, construction, operation, and end-of-life (EOL) phase, is analyzed in this study, taking the case of Ras Abu Aboud stadium. Ecoinvent v3.7.1 life cycle inventory database was used to quantify the ecosystem damage-related impacts. Two scenarios were considered for the operation phase: scenario 1 (single year of operation) and scenario 2 (30 years of operation). A sensitivity analysis was used to understand the extent of impact per category indicator subject to material quantity variations. The results showed that the planned circularity contributed to savings in the EOL phase of more than 4.26 × 107 species.year compared with 1.7 species.year across the overall life-cycle impacts. Several perspective-based circular and sharing economy scenarios were assessed to reveal the benefits of circular collaborative economy applications in leveraging possible ecological burdens before, during, and post-mega events in sustainable construction. This research acts as a backbone for future single-sport mega-events to attempt to transition to a carbon-neutral, fully sustainable event with an everlasting legacy.

Consistency of noncognitive skills and their relation to educational outcomes in a UK cohort

Noncognitive skills have been shown to associate with a range of health and socioeconomic outcomes. Many studies have relied on cross sectional data and have been unable to assess the longitudinal consistency of noncognitive skill measures. Using data from a UK birth cohort, we investigated a range of noncognitive skills: behavioural problems, social skills, communication, self-esteem, persistence, locus of control, empathy, impulsivity and personality. We assessed their consistency over a 17-year period throughout childhood and adolescence (age 6 months to 18 years), their genomic architecture, and their associations with socioeconomic outcomes. We found high longitudinal measurement consistency for behavioural and communication skills, but low consistency for other noncognitive skills, suggesting a high noise to signal ratio. We observed consistent non-zero heritability estimates and genetic correlations for only behavioural difficulties. Using aggregate measures of each skill over time, we found evidence of phenotypic correlations and heritability ($$h_{SNP}^2$$ h S N P 2 = 0.1–0.2) for behaviour, communication, self-esteem and locus of control. Associations between noncognitive skills and educational outcomes were observed for skills measured in mid to late childhood but these were at most a third of the size of IQ-education associations. These results suggest that measures designed to capture noncognitive skills may be subject to considerable response heterogeneity or measurement error. Aggregate measures that leverage repeat responses from longitudinal data may offer researchers more reliable measures that better identify underlying noncognitive skills than cross sectional measures.

Financial Turbulence and Crisis

Why do financial turbulence and crises occur? What are different types of financial crises? Why do different countries experience financial crises, while some are more resilient? These are intriguing questions that relate to financial turbulence and crisis. The financial system is inherently susceptible to turbulence and crises: The world has witnessed several rounds of financial turbulence since the early 2000s. The 2008 global financial crisis and the worldwide financial turbulence that took place following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic are examples. Periods of financial turbulence relate to heightened uncertainty and volatility in financial markets, and some of those periods can trigger financial crises. It is puzzling that although some countries can weather financial turbulence without falling into a financial crisis, others do not. This was observed during the global financial crisis. For example, financial turbulence triggered a financial crisis in some of the liberal market economies such as the United States and the United Kingdom. In contrast, Australia and Canada remained relatively resistant to financial turbulence. The existing literature tends to justify how and why a period of financial turbulence resulted in a financial crisis by looking at individual structural-, institutional-, or actor-level factors. In addition to the independent (separate) effects of these three principal explanatory factors, there is a need for detecting and analyzing their individual; interactive; and/or cumulative structural, institutional, and agential explanatory factors at work. Thus, it is crucial to explore some of the interrelated dynamics informing agency behavior which generate socioeconomic outcomes. Specifically, we call for a rigorous and refined analysis of how and why complementarities and enabling conditions that stem from interactions between structural and institutional factors influence actors’ agency and socioeconomic/political outcomes.

Long-term economic and social outcomes of youth suicide attempts

Background Youth who attempt suicide are more at risk for later mental disorders and suicide. However, little is known about their long-term socioeconomic outcomes. Aims We investigated associations between youth suicide attempts and adult economic and social outcomes. Method Participants were drawn from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Kindergarten Children (n = 2140) and followed up from ages 6 to 37 years. Lifetime suicide attempt was assessed at 15 and 22 years. Economic (employment earnings, retirement savings, welfare support, bankruptcy) and social (romantic partnership, separation/divorce, number of children) outcomes were assessed through data linkage with government tax return records obtained from age 22 to 37 years (2002–2017). Generalised linear models were used to test the association between youth suicide attempt and outcomes adjusting for background characteristics, parental mental disorders and suicide, and youth concurrent mental disorders. Results By age 22, 210 youths (9.8%) had attempted suicide. In fully adjusted models, youth who attempted suicide had lower annual earnings (average last 5 years, US$ −4134, 95% CI −7950 to −317), retirement savings (average last 5 years, US$ −1387, 95% CI −2982 to 209), greater risk of receiving welfare support (risk ratio (RR) = 2.05, 95% CI 1.39 to 3.04) and were less likely to be married/cohabiting (RR = 0.82, 95% CI 0.73 to 0.93), compared with those who did not attempt suicide. Over a 40-year working career, the loss of individual earnings attributable to suicide attempts was estimated at US$98 384. Conclusions Youth who attempt suicide are at risk of poor adult socioeconomic outcomes. Findings underscore the importance of psychosocial interventions for young people who have attempted suicide to prevent long-term social and economic disadvantage.

The Great Gatsby Curve

This paper provides a synthesis of theoretical and empirical work on the Great Gatsby Curve, the positive empirical relationship between cross-section income inequality and persistence of income across generations. We present statistical models of income dynamics that mechanically give rise to the relationship between inequality and mobility. Five distinct classes of theories, including models on family investments, skills, social influences, political economy, and aspirations are developed, each providing a behavioral mechanism to explain the relationship. Finally, we review empirical studies that provide evidence of the curve for a range of contexts and socioeconomic outcomes as well as explore evidence on mechanisms. (Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality Working Paper)

Chronic Migraine Pathophysiology and Treatment: A Review of Current Perspectives

Chronic migraine is a disabling neurological disorder that imposes a considerable burden on individual and socioeconomic outcomes. Chronic migraine is defined as headaches occurring on at least 15 days per month with at least eight of these fulfilling the criteria for migraine. Chronic migraine typically evolves from episodic migraine as a result of increasing attack frequency and/or several other risk factors that have been implicated with migraine chronification. Despite this evolution, chronic migraine likely develops into its own distinct clinical entity, with unique features and pathophysiology separating it from episodic migraine. Furthermore, chronic migraine is characterized with higher disability and incidence of comorbidities in comparison to episodic migraine. While existing migraine studies primarily focus on episodic migraine, less is known about chronic migraine pathophysiology. Mounting evidence on aberrant alterations suggest that pronounced functional and structural brain changes, central sensitization and neuroinflammation may underlie chronic migraine mechanisms. Current treatment options for chronic migraine include risk factor modification, acute and prophylactic therapies, evidence-based treatments such as onabotulinumtoxinA, topiramate and newly approved calcitonin gene-related peptide or receptor targeted monoclonal antibodies. Unfortunately, treatments are still predominantly ineffective in aborting migraine attacks and decreasing intensity and frequency, and poor adherence and compliance with preventative medications remains a significant challenge. Novel emerging chronic migraine treatments such as neuromodulation offer promising therapeutic approaches that warrant further investigation. The aim of this narrative review is to provide an update of current knowledge and perspectives regarding chronic migraine background, pathophysiology, current and emerging treatment options with the intention of facilitating future research into this debilitating and largely indeterminant disorder.