Research Publications

See our findings in academic paper publications.

A reference list of our key academic paper publications

April 2024: Research published in eClinicalMedicine looks at how many adults in Scotland have long Covid, based on electronic health records.

February 2024: Research published in the Lancet Regional Health - Europe uses national UK data to explore severity of outcomes after 2022 autumn COVID-19 booster vaccinations.

February 2024: Research published in the the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine looks at the severity of acute respiratory infections across the winter period in Scotland.

January 2024: Study published in Nature Communications identify health conditions linked to an increased risk of COVID-19 death, despite receiving their 2022 Autumn boost vaccine.

January 2024: Published in The Lancet, the UK’s epidemiological study of over 64 million people finds under-vaccinated people at higher risk for severe COVID-19

October 2023: Study published in The Journey of Public Health examines the quality of ethnicity coding within national public health datasets in Scotland.

October 2023: Senior members of the EAVE II team outline their ambitions to build upon the project's success and develop an 'EAVE III' platform.

September 2023: EAVE II analysts outline best practice for reporting sample odds ratios as estimated rate ratios in case-control studies.

August 2023: Research published in Nature Communications uses health data to explore outcomes for mothers and newborns following COVID-19 infection and vaccination during pregnancy in Scotland.

August 2023: Research published in the Vaccine journal explores predictors of incomplete COVID-19 vaccine schedule among adults in Scotland.

July 2023: Research published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Health has showed White Gypsy/Traveller and Pakistani groups have a higher risk of severe COVID-19 illness in Scotland.

Research published in The Lancet Regional Health - Europe investigates Omicron BA.5 variant risk and vaccine protection on severe COVID-19 outcomes in Scotland.

May 2023: EAVE II team investigates the relationship between a person having multiple underlying health conditions, their antibody response to COVID-19 vaccines and likelihood of experiencing severe health outcomes of COVID-19.

May 2023: New research, published in Nature Medicine, shows that obesity accelerates the loss of COVID-19 vaccination immunity

March 2023: Research submitted to The Lancet Digital Health* looks at how many people in Scotland have long Covid, based on electronic health records.

March 2023: Scottish study looks at the risk of people experiencing serious COVID-19 illness after being treated with antivirals and/or neutralising monoclonal antibodies, and estimates how effective these treatments are compared to one another

January 2023: Research published in PLOS Medicine looks at how well mRNA booster vaccines work in protecting people in Scotland and Brazil against COVID-19.

January 2022: This study, published in Nature Communications, looks at the risk of major congenital conditions following COVID-19 vaccines or SARS-CoV-2 infection.

December 2022: Research published in Archives of Disease in Childhood looks at the number of newborn babies in Scotland with SARS-CoV-2 viral infection.

December 2022: New research published in the Lancet looks at the uptake of COVID-19 treatments in Scotland.

December 2022: New study describes how three medications - dexamethasone, remdesivir, and tocilizumab— are used to treat patients hospitalised with COVID-19.

December 2022: PPI Lead Dr Lana Woolford and Patient Advisory Group members David W and Sandra J speak about the importance of patient collaboration in COVID-19 research, as well as their experiences of working with the EAVE II project.

November 2022: Letter showing that the 'Stealth' Omicron variant BA.2 put people at similar risk for COVID-19 than if infected with the original variant. Three vaccination doses also provide reasonable protection against both symptomatic infection and death. The summary in plain English for this paper is in progress and will be published soon.

October 2022: Study finds that protection provided by first and second doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca ChAdOx1, as well as first dose of Pfizer BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccines completely wanes by 80 days post-vaccination.

October 2022: Research published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine looks at the impact of COVID-19 on the health of pregnant women, and their babies, after Delta and Omicron infections.

October 2022: Research published in Nature Communications looks at potential links between COVID-19 vaccines, SARS-CoV-2 infections, and miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy.

October 2022: Research published in Nature Communications looks at potential links between COVID-19 vaccines, SARS-CoV-2 infections, and miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy.

October 2022: Research published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine looks at the impact of COVID-19 on the health of pregnant women, and their babies, after Delta and Omicron infections.

October 2022: Research published in The Lancet looks at who is at higher risk of serious illness following an Omicron infection, after a third or booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

October 2022: Research published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine looks at the impact of COVID-19 on the health of pregnant women, and their babies, after Delta and Omicron infections.

September 2022: Research published in The Lancet Regional Health Europe looks at the uptake, safety, and effectiveness over time of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for people aged 12-17 in Scotland.

September 2022: Study looking at the risk of COVID-19 hospitalizations among school-aged children. The summary in plain English for this paper is in progress and will be published soon.

September 2022: A Research Letter published in The Lancet looks at who has not yet been vaccinated for COVID-19 in Scotland.

August 2022: Research published in Nature Communications looks at potential side effects of second dose COVID-19 vaccines, related to bleeding and blood clotting.

August 2022: New paper looks at how the effectiveness of two-doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine changes over time in adolescents. The paper looks at the effectiveness of protection provided against symptomatic infection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and severe cases of COVID-19.

July 2022: Research published in the Journal of Global Health looks at how effective vaccines are in protecting people from symptomatic COVID-19 disease, hospital admission and death caused by the ‘Delta plus’ variant of SARS-CoV-2.

June 2022: Paper published in BMJ Open, outlines a common procedure for conducting and reporting on validation exercises for the QCOVID risk prediction algorithm.

June 2022: New pre-print outlines research done in collaboration with and led by the University of Cambridge. This study looks at the relationship between the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and obesity.

June 2022: New protocol outlining a common procedure for conducting and reporting on validation exercises for the QCOVID algorithm.

May 2022: Research published in eClinical Medicine looks at how the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare in England, Scotland and Wales.

May 2022: Research published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine looks at how the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare in Scotland from March 2020 to March 2021.

April 2022: Research published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases looks at COVID-19 hospital admissions, and the effectiveness of vaccine boosters, in people infected by the Omicron variant in Scotland.

April 2022: Pre-print article published on preprints with The Lancet investigates the waning effectiveness of booster vaccines from Pfizer BioNTech (BNT162b2) and Oxfrord-AstraZeneca (ChadOx1), against symptomatic infection and severe COVID-19 in Brazil and Scotland.

April 2022 (Pre-print): Research published in The Lancet looks at the effectiveness of two COVID-19 vaccine doses in adolescents over time.

March 2022: Research published in the Journal of Global Health looks at patterns of COVID-19 disease and hospital admissions in Scotland when the Delta variant was most common.

February 2022: Research published in PLOS Medicine looks at the uptake of routine childhood vaccines in Scotland and England before, during and after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

First dose ChAdOx1 and BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccinations and cerebral venous sinus thrombosis: A pooled self-controlled case series study of 11.6 million individuals in England, Scotland, and Wales.

February 2022: Protocol outlining a new study aimed at assessing the uptake rates, effectiveness, and safety of all currently approved COVID-19 vaccines in the UK.

February 2022: Study investigates the effectiveness of primary dose CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccines and Pfizer BioNTech booster vaccines in 14 million people in Brazil

January 2022: Research published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine looks at which adults with asthma in Scotland might be at risk of serious complications from COVID-19.

January 2022: Research published in Nature Medicine looks at COVID-19 disease and vaccination in pregnant women in Scotland, and the impact this has had on their health.

December 2021: Unpublished pre-print study looking at the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant of concern.

Protocol for a prospective study to investigate the uptake, effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines in children and young people (CYP) aged 0 to 17 years in Scotland.

December 2021: The protection offered by the Oxford-Astra Zeneca Covid-19 vaccine declines after three months of receiving two doses, a study says.

November 2021: Research published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine looks at the risk of children with asthma in Scotland being admitted to hospital with COVID-19.

Protocol for an exploratory drug utilisation study, aimed at providing in-depth descriptions of patients receiving any combination of three therapeutic drugs (dexamethasone, remdesivir and tocilizumab), as well as the treatment patterns observed in Scotland.

October 2021: A research letter published in The Lancet looks at people in Scotland who have died of COVID-19 after two vaccine doses, and what the risks and causes might be.

October 2021: Vaccine data analysis from England and Scotland, published in the Nature Medicine, looks at possible links between conditions of the nervous system and COVID-19 infection and vaccination.

October 2021: Research published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine looks at the risk of death after being admitted to hospital with COVID-19. We look at patients who were shielding or living with multiple long term conditions, during the first wave of the pandemic in Scotland.

October 2021: Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine estimates the level of protection that vaccines give against deaths from COVID-19 infection with the Delta variant.

September 2021: New research published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine looks at the number of people in Scotland who have died from or been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 after at least one vaccine dose.

July 2021: A research letter in The Lancet Digital Health models the impact of the Delta variant on COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions and deaths in Scotland around the time of EURO 2020.

July 2021: A paper published in The Lancet Digital Health describes the EAVE II cohort and its use to monitor and forecast COVID-19 health outcomes across the Scottish population since March 2020.

June 2021: The Delta variant of COVID-19 is associated with approximately double the risk of hospitalisation compared with the Alpha variant, but vaccine continues to protect.

June 2021: EAVE II study of 2.53 million first COVID-19 vaccine doses across Scotland shows small increases in risk for some adverse events following Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

The EAVE II cohort profile, detailing why the cohort was set up, who is in the cohort, and what has been found, measured, and more.

May 2021: First national level analysis shows hospital admissions for COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) across Scotland and Wales fell during the first COVID-19 lockdown.

May 2021: A milestone study, which points to the success of first dose mass vaccination in reducing COVID-19 hospitalisations across Scotland, is now available from The Lancet.

March 2021: Study finds 36% fewer people were admitted to hospital in Scotland and Wales in the first lockdown due to asthma.

Vaccination has been linked to a substantial reduction in the risk of Covid-19 admissions to Scotland’s hospitals, landmark research suggests in pre-print.

October 2020: A study to derive and validate a risk prediction algorithm to estimate hospital admission and mortality outcomes from COVID-19 in adults.

October 2020: A study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine highlights significant drops in A&E attendances, and emergency and planned hospital admissions across Scotland during the first few months of the pandemic.

Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 (EAVE II): Protocol for an Observational Study using Linked Scottish National Data