In COVID-19 Outcomes

by Theresa Min

The COVID-19 pandemic was a global outbreak that took the entire world by surprise. The coronavirus disease was an infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This infectious virus was extremely dangerous for older people and many with underlying medical conditions (asthma, chronic disease, cancer, etc.). This pandemic sadly took the lives of millions due to many factors of limited number of resources, overwhelmed healthcare systems and lack of cooperation. Due to health inequalities and socioeconomic factors, high mortality and morbidity rates were the highest amongst the most socioeconomically disadvantaged globally.

Socioeconomic statuses are a way of measuring one’s social and economic position, which can include income, education and occupation. There are three levels: low, medium and high; where those with a lower socioeconomic status will more likely experience poorer health and have chronic health conditions. It is important to note that the pattern of low socioeconomic statuses was often faced with lower financial, educational and health resources; resulting in health disparities which increase the morbidity and mortality rates. To be specific, those with lower socioeconomic status will have limited access to healthcare, live under chronic stress and could suffer from environmental factors. Socioeconomic factors can greatly increase the mortality and morbidity rate of COVID-19. 

Globally, it was found that the “United States, some European countries and Latin American regions had the highest morbidity and mortality rates” which included variables like age, unemployment, years of schooling, chronic disease (Faramarzi, 2022). These variables were important as these were found to have a “significant linear relationship with mortality and morbidity rate”; having a stronger correlation in “ human development index (HDI), urban populations, education index, years of schooling, cardiovascular diseases & age-related variables” (Faramarzi,2022). COVID-19 outcomes and HDI have a strong association with each other, where higher HDI have higher morbidity and mortality rates, but this can be due to developed countries having more access to diagnostic tests and better record keeping. This still showed how socioeconomic factors can not only affect COVID-19 outcomes but affect health status.  

“Evidence of area level socioeconomic inequalities in COVID-19 mortality rates were found in four of the six World Health Organizations world regions (Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Western Pacific)” (McGowan, 2022). In these four regions, the relationship of social disadvantage and COVID-19 mortality rates were studied, examined and analyzed; showing the health disparities faced globally. For example, “52 U.S. studies showed COVID-19 mortality rates were higher in areas of social disadvantage than in affluent areas” and even observed how “states with higher income inequality had higher deaths than states with lower income inequality”(McGowan, 2022). In Brazil, it was found that those in high-income areas were more at risk of contracting COVID-19, but those living in “more deprived areas had higher death rates” (McGowan, 2022). In Europe, studies in the UK, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy and Switzerland all showed “positive associations between area-level indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage and COVID-19 mortality rates”(McGowan, 2022).  However, there are not many clear statistics regarding this relationship but it can be assumed that socioeconomic status plays a great role in increasing COVID-19 mortality and morbidity rates. 

Looking at the disproportionately impact on low-income communities, it is important to try and decrease this from happening. With proper education and health communication, it is important to properly bring governments and communities together to prevent high mortality rates. There needs to be further research and urgency to study this relationship to better promote possible programs and policies to be better prepared in the future.

References  

Faramarzi, Ahmad et al. “Socioeconomic status and COVID-19-related cases and fatalities in the world: A cross-sectional ecological study.” Health science reports vol. 5,3 e628. 5 May. 2022, doi:10.1002/hsr2.628 

McGowan, Victoria J, and Clare Bambra. “COVID-19 mortality and deprivation: pandemic, syndemic, and endemic health inequalities.” The Lancet. Public health vol. 7,11 (2022): e966-e975. doi:10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00223-7