Using data to improve public health: COVID-19 secondment

这个项目的主要目的是了解大流行对心理健康的影响。这一点很重要，因为新冠肺炎提出了许多新的挑战。日常生活因其危及生命的性质、封锁、屏蔽、工作变化、家庭教育和自我孤立而受到损害。人们为自己和他人担心；许多人面临孤独。早期的研究表明，人们的心理健康受到了影响。我自己的研究表明，在这段时间里，NHS难以提供通常高质量的医疗保健。在这个项目中，我将分析在大流行期间有多少人出现了精神健康问题，如抑郁、焦虑、睡眠不佳、酗酒和药物滥用、自我伤害和饮食失调。我会将这一年与前几年进行比较，以了解COVID期间的变化。这将帮助我们了解COVID的全部影响，并计划如何在未来的疫情中遏制精神健康问题。研究将在哪里进行以及如何进行。当某人在全科医生诊所或医院看到卫生专业人员时，会记录他们就诊的原因、他们的健康问题和所提供的护理。在过去，这些都是用纸质文件写成的。现在，这些记录被保存在计算机上。正因为如此，研究人员可以将存储的信息汇集在安全的数据库中，并对其进行研究，以改善医疗保健。这是我的研究的一个关键优势，我将使用常规收集的数据，因此不会通过获取新数据来增加患者或临床医生的负担。英国在建立人们的健康数据安全但允许研究人员研究的设置(平台)方面处于世界领先地位。在这项研究中，我将使用两个高质量的平台：OpenSAFELY和NHS Digital。我将研究出现新的精神健康症状和诊断的人数，以及治疗他们的药物。我将使用大流行前的数据来预测，如果大流行没有发生，预计会有多少人有心理健康问题。我会将这与实际发生的情况进行比较。这将有助于我们了解大流行对精神健康和为人们提供的服务的影响。我还将找到在大流行期间可能会使人们面临精神健康问题风险的因素。这符合这一资金呼吁，也符合政府的优先事项。心理健康、医疗保健中断和社会健康被列为需要研究的关键领域。作为主要研究人员，我将计划和交付这项工作。我将使用上述平台。我将由专家科学家、病人和医生/护士指导。我的工作将是强大的，因为它将使用来自英国大部分人口的数据。不希望他们的数据被共享的人，可以删除他们的数据。没有多少人这样做，因为他们知道自己的数据得到了安全的保存、正确的使用，并有明确的目标来帮助他们和NHS。研究人员无法确定个人的身份。我们向政府和公众展示的结果将是摘要。例如，在这项研究中，我们将以经历过精神健康问题的总人数和百分比来表示结果。我们将估计有多少可能与大流行有关。我们会说，由于大流行及其封锁措施，哪些类型的人更容易出现心理健康问题。这将有助于政府采取更好的行动来帮助人民的需要。挑战上述计划确实存在一些挑战。我们需要清楚地说明什么是/不是新的精神健康诊断。它可以被认为是当一个人第一次被诊断出精神健康时，或者当他们几年没有得到这种诊断时。这将由患者和医生/护士决定。这项工作也将很困难，因为封锁减少了人们与他们的全科医生的联系。我们需要仔细研究这一点，才能告诉我们新冠肺炎对精神健康的真正影响。我们需要将这一点与NHS服务中断的影响分开。

The key aimsThis project aims to understand how mental health has been affected by the pandemic. This is important because COVID-19 raised many new challenges. Daily life has been harmed by its life-threatening nature, lockdowns, shielding, changes at work, home schooling and self-isolation. People have feared for themselves and for others; many faced loneliness. Early research shows that people's mental health suffered. My own research showed that the NHS struggled to deliver usual high quality healthcare over this time. In this project, I will analyse how many people during the pandemic developed mental health problems like depression, anxiety, poor sleep, alcohol and drug abuse, self-harm and eating disorders. I will compare this to previous years to understand changes during COVID. This will help us to know the full effects of COVID and to plan how to curb mental health problems in future pandemics.Where and how the research will be undertakenWhen someone sees a health professional in a GP practice or hospital, facts are recorded about the reasons for their visit, their health problems and care given. In the past, these were written in paper files. Now these records are kept on computers. Because of this, researchers can pool the stored information in secure data banks and study them to improve healthcare. This is a key strength of my research, I will use routinely collected data and so will not burden patients or clinicians by getting new data.The UK is world leading in building set-ups (platforms) where people's health data are kept safe yet researchers are allowed to study them. In this research I will use two high quality platforms: OpenSAFELY and NHS Digital. I will study the number of people with new mental health symptoms and diagnoses, and drugs prescribed to treat them. I will use data from before the pandemic to predict how many people with mental health problems would be expected had the pandemic not happened. I will compare this to what has actually happened. This will help us to understand the effect of the pandemic on mental health and on the services people were provided. I will also find factors that may put people at risk of mental health problems during pandemics. This is in line with this funding call and with the government's priorities. Mental Health, Healthcare Disruption and Health in the Society were stated as key areas needing study.Who will be involvedAs the leading researcher, I will plan and deliver this work. I will use the platforms stated above. I will be guided by expert scientists, patients, and doctors/nurses. My work will be powerful as it will use data from a large section of the UK population. People who do not wish their data to be shared, can have their data removed. Not many people do, knowing that their data are kept safely, used correctly and with the clear aim to help them and the NHS. Researchers cannot identify individual people. The results that we show to the government and public will be summaries. For example, in this study we will present the results as overall numbers and percentages of people who experienced mental health problems. We will give estimates on how much could be related to the pandemic. We will say what kinds of people are at more risk of mental health problems due to the pandemic and its lockdown measures. This will help the government to act better to help the needs of people.ChallengesThe plan above does have some challenges. We will need to say clearly what is/is not a new mental health diagnosis. It could be seen as when someone has a mental health diagnosis for the first time, or when they have not had it for several years. This will be decided with patients and doctors/nurses. The work will also be difficult because lockdown reduced people's contact with their GPs. We will need to look carefully at this to tell the real effect of COVID on mental health. We will need to separate this from the effect of disrupted NHS services.