Update 2 March 2023: Following the merger of NHS Digital and NHS England on 1st February 2023 we are reviewing the future presentation of the NHS Outcomes Framework indicators. As part of this review, the annual publication which was due to be released in March 2023 has been delayed. Further announcements about this dataset will be made on this page in due course. Directly standardised mortality rate from cancer for people aged under 75, per 100,000 population. To ensure that the NHS is held to account for doing all that it can to prevent deaths from cancer in people under 75. Some different patterns have been observed in the 2020 mortality data which are likely to have been impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Statistics from this period should also be interpreted with care. Legacy unique identifier: P01733

BackgroundChildhood cancer represents a leading cause of death and disease burden in high income countries (HICs) and low-and-middle income countries (LMICs). It is postulated that the current COVID-19 pandemic has hampered global development of pediatric oncology care programs. This systematic review aimed to comprehensively review the global impact of COVID-19 on childhood cancer clinical outcomes and care delivery.MethodsA systematic search was conducted on PubMed, Embase, Medline, and the African Medical Index from inception to November 3, 2021 following PRISMA guidelines. A manual search was performed to identify additional relevant studies. Articles were selected based on predetermined eligibility criteria.FindingsThe majority of studies reported patients with cancer and COVID-19 presenting as asymptomatic (HICs: 33.7%, LMICs: 22.0%) or with primary manifestations of fever (HICs: 36.1%, LMICs: 51.4%) and respiratory symptoms (HICs: 29.6%, LMICs: 11.7%). LMICs also reported a high frequency of patients presenting with cough (23.6%) and gastrointestinal symptoms (10.6%). The majority of patients were generally noted to have a good prognosis; however the crude mortality rate was higher in LMICs when compared to HICs (8.0% vs 1.8%). Moreover, the pandemic has resulted in delays and interruptions to cancer therapies and delays in childhood cancer diagnoses in both HICs and LMICs. However, these findings were disproportionately reported in LMICs, with significant staff shortages, supply chain disruptions, and limited access to cancer therapies for patients.ConclusionsThe COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in delays and interruptions to childhood cancer therapies and delays in childhood cancer diagnoses, and disproportionately so within LMICs. This review provides lessons learned for future system-wide disruptions to care, as well as provides key points for moving forward better with care through the remainder of this pandemic.Systematic Review RegistrationCRD42021266758, https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=266758

The ‘Registrar General’s Annual Review of Demographic Trends’ (RGAR) brings together a range of NRS data to provide new insights and highlight key trends. This year’s RGAR highlights the extent of the mortality deprivation gap and other types of health inequality in Scotland. Mortality rates are about two times as high in the most deprived areas compared to the least deprived areas. But for some specific causes of death, we see much larger inequalities. For example, people in the most deprived areas of Scotland are more than 15 times as likely to die from drug misuse than those in the least deprived areas. COVID-19 has accounted for 8% of all deaths during the pandemic so far (March 2020 to July 2022). There have also been excess deaths from some other causes, including cancer and heart disease. If past trends continue, we project that by 2045, Scotland will have a smaller and older population. For the first time in a number of years, we project Scotland's population to fall in the next decade (starting around 2029). Scotland is the only UK country with a projected fall by 2045. Scotland has seen big changes in the types of unions that are legally recognised. For example, in 2021 civil partnerships became available to mixed-sex couples. More than 4 in 5 civil partnerships in 2021 were of mixed-sex couples.