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Abstract Background In the UK, unique and unforeseen factors, including COVID-19, Brexit, and Ukraine-Russia war, have resulted in an unprecedented cost of living crisis, creating a second health emergency. We present, one of the first rapid reviews with the aim of examining the impact of this current crisis, at a population level. We reviewed published literature, as well as grey literature, examining a broad range of physical and mental impacts on health in the short, mid, and long term, identifying those most at risk, impacts on system partners, including emergency services and the third sector, as well as mitigation strategies. Methods We conducted a rapid review by searching PubMed, Embase, MEDLINE, and HMIC (2020 to 2023). We searched for grey literature on Google and hand-searched the reports of relevant public health organisations. We included interventional and observational studies that reported outcomes of interventions aimed at mitigating against the impacts of cost of living at a population level. Results We found that the strongest evidence was for the impact of cold and mouldy homes on respiratory-related infections and respiratory conditions. Those at an increased risk were young children (0–4 years), the elderly (aged 75 and over), as well as those already vulnerable, including those with long-term multimorbidity. Further short-term impacts include an increased risk of physical pain including musculoskeletal and chest pain, and increased risk of enteric infections and malnutrition. In the mid-term, we could see increases in hypertension, transient ischaemic attacks, and myocardial infarctions, and respiratory illnesses. In the long term we could see an increase in mortality and morbidity rates from respiratory and cardiovascular disease, as well as increase rates of suicide and self-harm and infectious disease outcomes. Changes in behaviour are likely particularly around changes in food buying patterns and the ability to heat a home. System partners are also impacted, with voluntary sectors seeing fewer volunteers, an increase in petty crime and theft, alternative heating appliances causing fires, and an increase in burns and burn-related admissions. To mitigate against these impacts, support should be provided, to the most vulnerable, to help increase disposable income, reduce energy bills, and encourage home improvements linked with energy efficiency. Stronger links to bridge voluntary, community, charity and faith groups are needed to help provide additional aid and support. Conclusion Although the CoL crisis affects the entire population, the impacts are exacerbated in those that are most vulnerable, particularly young children, single parents, multigenerational families. More can be done at a community and societal level to support the most vulnerable, and those living with long-term multimorbidity. This review consolidates the current evidence on the impacts of the cost of living crisis and may enable decision makers to target limited resources more effectively.

A strong and effective COVID-19 and future pandemic responses rely on global efforts to carry out surveillance of infections and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants and to act accordingly in real time. Many countries in Southeast Asia lack capacity to determine the potential threat of new variants, or other emerging infections. Funded by Wellcome, the Southeast Asia initiative to combat SARS-CoV-2 variants (SEACOVARIANTS) consortium aims to develop and apply a multidisciplinary research platform in Southeast Asia (SEA) for rapid assessment of the biological significance of SARS-CoV-2 variants, thereby informing coordinated local, regional and global responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our proposal is delivered by the Vietnam and Thailand Wellcome Africa Asia Programmes, bringing together a multidisciplinary team in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam with partners in Singapore, the UK and the USA. Herein we outline five work packages to deliver strengthened regional scientific capacity that can be rapidly deployed for future outbreak responses.

Given the increasing prevalence of online data collection, it is important to know how behavioral data obtained online compare to samples collected in the laboratory. This study compares online and in-person measurement of speech perception in older children and adolescents. Speech perception is important for assessment and treatment planning in speech-language pathology; we focus on the American English /ɹ/ sound because of its frequency as a clinical target. Two speech perception tasks were adapted for web presentation using Gorilla: identification of items along a synthetic continuum from rake to wake, and category goodness judgment of English /ɹ/ sounds in words produced by various talkers with and without speech sound disorder. Fifty typical children aged 9-15 completed these tasks online using a standard headset. These data were compared to a previous sample of 98 typical children aged 9-15 who completed the same tasks in the lab setting. For the identification task, participants exhibited smaller boundary widths (suggestive of more acute perception) in the in-person setting relative to the online setting. For the category goodness judgment task, there was no statistically significant effect of modality. The correlation between scores on the two tasks was significant in the online setting but not in the in-person setting, but the difference in correlation strength was not statistically significant. Overall, our findings agree with previous research in suggesting that online and in-person data collection do not yield identical results, but the two contexts tend to support the same broad conclusions. In addition, these results suggest that online data collection can make it easier for researchers connect with a more representative sample of participants.

Most current statistics courses include some instruction relevant to causal inference. Whether this instruction is incorporated as material on randomized experiments or as an interpretation of associations measured by correlation or regression coefficients, the way in which this material is presented may have important implications for understanding causal inference fundamentals. Although the connection between study design and the ability to infer causality is often described well, the link between the language used to describe study results and causal attribution typically is not well defined. The current study investigates this relationship experimentally using a sample of students in a statistics course at a large western university in the United States. It also provides (non-experimental) evidence about the association between statistics instruction and the ability to understand appropriate causal attribution. The results from our experimental vignette study suggest that the wording of study findings impacts causal attribution by the reader, and, perhaps more surprisingly, that this variation in level of causal attribution across different wording conditions seems to pale in comparison to the variation across study contexts. More research, however, is needed to better understand how to tailor statistics instruction to make students sufficiently wary of unwarranted causal interpretation.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant transition towards online education in pre-K-12 schools, prompting school administrators to confront the disparities revealed by the remote learning model. This paper includes the findings of a multi-phase research project exploring the intersection of educational leadership, technology, and systemic inequities aimed to guide administrator preparation programs to meet relevant, post-pandemic leadership standards. Phase One of the research project, conducted early in the pandemic, highlights the findings from a survey administered to technology directors in Minnesota. The survey aimed to understand how school districts were addressing the technology disparities encountered by students and families during hybrid and distance learning models. Phase Two of the research project, conducted as the pandemic waned, focused on school leaders' evaluation of which practices developed and implemented during remote learning should be sustained. Technology directors participated in a focus group and asserted that the pandemic was an opportunity for educational leaders to reimagine schools for the success of all students. Findings call for revised administrator preparation standards, the implementation of technology plans in every state, and continued focus on identifying and addressing educational inequities.

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a dramatic shift to online learning for K-12 public schools, requiring school districts to address inequities that surfaced in the remote learning model. This paper includes the findings of the second study of a multi-year research project exploring the intersection of technology and educational inequities through the pandemic. As the pandemic waned, practitioners evaluated which practices developed during remote learning should be sustained. Five Minnesota technology directors participated in a focus group to discuss how inequities are being addressed in their schools post-pandemic. Technology directors explained that the pandemic was an opportunity to reimagine schools for the success of all students through an infrastructure that includes actions relative to three domains: effective instruction, school-home partnerships, and law and policy. Further research is recommended, such as broadening the geographical location of participants outside of Minnesota, expanding participants beyond the role of technology director (i.e., students, teachers, parents), and analyzing student enrollment in K-12 online schools through a longitudinal study.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in profound disruption to geography higher education. A pivot to online teaching required staff to rapidly adapt their practices to novel digital spaces. Whilst many studies have reported the different pedagogic approaches adopted, fewer have evaluated the resultant student learning experience. In this study, we aimed to create an evidence base regarding the benefits and challenges of online learning during the pandemic, mapped against the teaching, cognitive and social presences of the Community of Inquiry framework. We adopted a mixed-methods approach of online surveys (105 students) and focus groups (14 students), undertaken across two undergraduate geography programmes in a British university, exploring the benefits of asynchronous and synchronous online learning, and assessment and feedback strategies. We discovered flexibility in student work patterns and use of technology to facilitate engagement in learning. We also identified key challenges for students such as time management, maintaining motivation, engaging in online classes, and feeling part of an online learning community. We identify best practice in collaborative-constructivist online learning, so that in the event of any future remote pivot, or with sustained adoption of blended modes of delivery, we can achieve a high-quality student learning experience.