Has the suicide rate increased 200% during the COVID-19 lockdown period?

Posted on by FactCheckNI

[This article is part of the COVID-19 Information Dissemination (COVID-19 ID) Project — a partnership between Community Development and Health Network (CDHN) and FactCheckNI. Its aim is to improve people’s health literacy about COVID-19 by providing accurate and up-to-date information that will increase knowledge, understanding and confidence and enable people to make good health decisions.]

CLAIM: Suicides have increased 200% in the COVID-19 lockdown period.

CONCLUSION: UNSUBSTANTIATED. There are no official statistics or evidence to support the claim that the rates of suicide increased 200% during the period of lockdown (i.e. from 23 March to present). Continue reading Has the suicide rate increased 200% during the COVID-19 lockdown period?

Social distancing in Northern Ireland

Posted on by FactCheckNI

This article explains what the rules are in Northern Ireland regarding the social distance between people. It also discusses the evidence regarding lessening the current 2 metre distance.

[This article is part of the COVID-19 Information Dissemination (COVID-19 ID) Project — a partnership between Community Development and Health Network (CDHN) and FactCheckNI. Its aim is to improve people’s health literacy about COVID-19 by providing accurate and up-to-date information that will increase knowledge, understanding and confidence and enable people to make good health decisions.]
Continue reading Social distancing in Northern Ireland

Deep dive: COVID-19 related inequalities

Posted on by FactCheckNI

Making basic comparisons between the numbers of COVID-19 positive tests or deaths across different geographic regions using raw figures may seem straightforward. But coming to conclusions about the significance of differences is fraught with difficulty, given differences in population structures (particularly age).

This explainer builds on our outline article and looks at the wealth of data and the charts behind recent reports from the Department of Health (DoH) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA). Those organisations present a standardised analysis of COVID-19 infections (positive test results), hospital admissions and deaths, to assess the different health outcomes across regions of Northern Ireland, with a particular focus on areas of least and most deprivation. Continue reading Deep dive: COVID-19 related inequalities

COVID-19 and health inequalities in Northern Ireland

Posted on by FactCheckNI

This article explains data published by the Department of Health as well as the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, about COVID-19 related health inequalities in Northern Ireland.

[This article is part of the COVID-19 Information Dissemination (COVID-19 ID) Project — a partnership between Community Development and Health Network (CDHN) and FactCheckNI. Its aim is to improve people’s health literacy about COVID-19 by providing accurate and up-to-date information that will increase knowledge, understanding and confidence and enable people to make good health decisions.] Continue reading COVID-19 and health inequalities in Northern Ireland

Are 1 in 4 NI adults ‘now at risk of hunger and malnutrition’?

Posted on by FactCheckNI

CLAIM: “One in four NI adults ‘now at risk of hunger and malnutrition’”

CONCLUSION: UNSUBSTANTIATED. The research behind the News Letter headline was conducted across the UK and the results were not broken down by region, so this UK finding cannot be applied to Northern Ireland without further area-specific evidence.

Continue reading Are 1 in 4 NI adults ‘now at risk of hunger and malnutrition’?

It’s all about the test: Counting COVID-19 deaths

Posted on by Allan LEONARD

It’s all about the test: Counting COVID-19 deaths
by Allan LEONARD for FactCheckNI
14 April 2020

UPDATED 20/4/2020

“The figures on deaths relate in almost all cases to patients who have died in hospital and who have tested positive for COVID-19. Slight differences in reporting in devolved administrations may mean that they include a small number of deaths outside hospital.” — Department of Health and Social Care (UK)

[This article is part of the COVID-19 Information Dissemination (COVID-19 ID) Project — a partnership between Community Development and Health Network (CDHN) and FactCheckNI. Its aim is to improve people’s health literacy about COVID-19 by providing accurate and up-to-date information which will increase knowledge, understanding and confidence and enable people to make good health decisions.]

Continue reading It’s all about the test: Counting COVID-19 deaths