Evidence Updates Homepage – Public Health Key Documents

The Health Care Team produce a monthly report on evidence updates. The methods used to identify potentially relevant evidence and circulate it each month can be viewed here.

Past months’ updates (plus this months in PDF format) can be accessed at the bottom of the page.

Public Health Key Documents: August 2025

NIHR

Cessation of smoking in people attending UK emergency departments: the COSTED RCT with economic and process evaluation

An opportunistic smoking cessation intervention comprising brief advice, an e-cigarette starter kit and referral to stop smoking services was found to be effective for sustained smoking abstinence with few reported adverse events.  Participants were recruited from six EDs including Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Systematic search: No

August 2025

The King’s Fund

Nil

SIGN

Nil

Public Health Scotland

Ending HIV transmission in Scotland by 2030 – HIV transmission elimination delivery plan 2023-26: progress report to March 2025

This publication provides an update on the Delivery Plan (2023-26) and outlines: the collective progress and achievements across key actions; the current epidemiological context including, what has changed and what stakeholders know now that they did not know in 2023; the pillar interventions that require to be implemented in 2025-26; changes and updates for consideration in plans from 2026.

Systematic search: No

August 2025

Scottish Government

Cancer prehabilitation in Scotland: 2025 survey findings report

This report summarises the findings from a survey of stakeholders and service providers.  Overall, 2025 survey findings reaffirm support for prehabilitation amongst staff, and a stronger perception that the ‘Key Principles for Implementing Cancer Prehabilitation across Scotland’ underpin delivery of local prehabilitation activities. Awareness of the Key Principles, the availability of prehabilitation activities locally, and the accessibility of activities show few changes from 2022. However, there have been examples of local service improvements over the past 18 months, for example, in reaching patients with a wider variety of cancer types, trialling screening tools, and developing leadership roles to embed prehabilitation in ways of working.

Systematic search: No

September 2025

Gender identity healthcare: evaluation of the impact of Scottish Government funding

This evaluation considers the impact of Scottish Government funding allocated to NHS Health Boards for work to improve access to and delivery of gender identity healthcare in Scotland. It considers the impact on waiting times and quality of care, and on support for future development and service improvement work.

Systematic search: No

August 2025

Child poverty pathfinders in Dundee and Glasgow: phase two evaluation

This independent evaluation reports impacts and learning from the Child Poverty Pathfinders in Dundee and Glasgow, place-based partnerships aimed at system change to tackle child poverty. The evaluation explores engagement, delivery, barriers, impacts and value-for-money insights.

Systematic search: No

June 2025

NICE – Guidelines

Nil

NICE – Quality Standards

QS212 Overweight and obesity management

This quality standard covers prevention, behavioural management, assessment, and treatment of overweight, obesity and central adiposity in children and young people aged over 2 years, and adults. This includes those with established comorbidities, and those with risk factors for other medical conditions. It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement.  It updates and replaces a number of previous standards. It does not cover care during pregnancy.

Systematic search: No

August 2025

UKHSA

Eating habits of children aged 16 to 18 months

This report presents findings from a survey of primary caregivers of children aged 16 to 18 months in England in 2023. The findings provide information on aspects of the children’s diet and eating behaviours – and how these compare with UK guidance and dietary recommendations.

Systematic search: No

August 2025

Childhood vaccines: parental attitudes survey 2025

Results of a UKHSA created online survey of parents of children aged 2 months to 5 years. In a change to previous surveys, which covered England only, parents were sampled from across the UK.  Parents have a high level of confidence in children’s vaccination in the UK. Most parents agreed that vaccines work for children (87%), that they are safe (85%) and that they trusted them (84%).  The NHS and healthcare professionals are the most trusted sources of information on vaccines among parents with a child aged 4 years or under. Just under half of parents who reported seeing information that made them concerned or worried about their baby or young child having a vaccine (47%) said they saw this information on social media. 

Systematic search: No

August 2025

Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre

Nil

EPPI Centre

Nil

AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality – USA)

Nil

Health Foundation

Nil

Canadian Agency for drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH)

Nil

McGill University Health Centre (Canada)

Nil

Health Information & Quality Authority (Ireland) – Health Technology Assessments

Nil

Campbell Collaboration

The efficacy of nutritional interventions in reducing childhood/youth aggressive and antisocial behavior: a mixed‐methods systematic review and meta‐analysis

Nutritional interventions targeting a large number of nutrients (e.g., general improvement in diet or provision of food supplements with a wide array of vitamins and minerals) may be effective in reducing aggression (small effect), antisocial behavior (moderate effect), and offending (large effect). Omega‐3 fatty acid supplementation has a small effect in reducing both aggression and antisocial behavior. Vitamin D supplementation has a moderate effect in reducing antisocial behaviors.  However, the results should not be seen as definitive and may not be generalizable.  While further research is needed, these interventions are safe, relatively easy‐to‐implement, and cheap.

Systematic search: Yes

August 2025

Glasgow Centre for Population Health

Research partnership to tackle dietary inequalities in Glasgow

A new research project, funded with more than £1m by UK Research & Innovation, aims to better understand the reasons for dietary and health inequalities in low-income areas of Glasgow. The project will also evaluate the impact of the establishment of new, locally run food markets to help support healthful diets through better access to healthier produce.

Systematic search: No

August 2025

Selected other recent reports

Age Scotland (2025) On every street: How loneliness is affecting older people in Scotland

A national survey of 1,287 people over the age of 50 in Scotland by Age Scotland identified that around half (46%) are experiencing loneliness. 5% are lonely all the time and 41% are lonely some of the time. The proportion of people who always feel lonely is higher for people living alone (10%) and respondents with a disability or health condition (8%). People living in urban areas are slightly more likely to feel lonely all or some of the time than those living in rural areas. Loneliness among unpaid carers is very high, with 41% saying they felt lonely all or some of the time.  The report includes stories and recommendations.

Centre for Mental Health (2025) Crisis and Acute Care

This briefing examines research from the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Mental Health about the most effective ways of supporting people in a mental health crisis. It sets out the evidence for community-based alternatives to hospital care (such as crisis houses, day units, home treatment teams and crisis cafes), which enable people to get support closer to home.  It identifies a mismatch between evidence and practice in the provision of crisis care, with variable implementation of evidence-based approaches, and widespread adoption of models without an existing clear evidence base. It also finds that some existing mental health crisis services operate with exclusion criteria which mean that certain groups of people, including children, young adults, and those with co-occurring conditions, are unable to access support.

Institute of Health Equity (2025) NHS Employers: Reducing Health Inequalities through Local Recruitment

Employment is one of the most powerful levers to improve health and reduce inequalities. As the country’s largest employer, the NHS has a unique opportunity to lead by example. This report showcases how four NHS organisations—Leeds Health and Care Academy, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay, FCMS, and Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust—are tackling health inequalities by transforming their recruitment and employment practices. Initiatives include creating accessible local job pathways, targeted outreach and integrating employment support into mental health services.

King’s College London. Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) (2025) LeDeR Annual Report: Learning from lives and deaths – People with a learning disability and autistic people

The annual review commissioned by NHS England shows that people with learning disabilities and autism in England are dying almost 20 years younger than the rest of the population.

Nuffield Trust (2025) Assisted dying in practice: International experiences and implications for health and social care

Exploring 15 jurisdictions across the world, this is the most detailed look to date at what the UK can learn from other countries as the UK and Scottish Parliaments debate bills to legalise assisted dying and potentially set up assisted dying services. It finds that that safe and effective implementation will require substantial planning, infrastructure and funding, all of which are scarce in today’s NHS amid staff cuts, reorganisation, tight finances, and patchy access to end of life care.

NICE FORWARD PLANNING – Publications due September 2025

Pneumonia: diagnosis and management

Clinical Guideline – update (new clinical practice evidence)

Pneumonia: diagnosis and management (QS update)   

Quality Standard – update (new clinical practice evidence)

Chronic heart failure in adults: diagnosis and management

Clinical Guideline – update (new pharmaceutical evidence)

 Key Document

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

Previous Months

2020

2019

2018

2017

 2016

2015