Socioeconomic inequalities and the Covid-19 Pandemic

Journal title RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA
Author/s Roberto De Vogli, Rossella De Falco
Publishing Year 2021 Issue 2021/2
Language English Pages 11 P. 25-35 File size 160 KB
DOI 10.3280/RSF2021-002003
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The aim of this review is to examine the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on health inequalities and discuss effective public policies in containing them. The Covid-19 pandemic has generated not only an unprecedented health crisis, but also a severe economic recession and rapid increase in unemployment and economic difficulties. The poorer socioeconomic classes have been most affected by SARS-CoV-2 infections and deaths due to inequalities in working, housing and area of residence conditions, psychosocial factors, as well as unequal access to health care. However, the effects of the pandemic on health inequalities can be tackled by effective policies of Covid-19 containment based on testing, tracing and isolate timely and stronger social protection measures on behalf of the most disadvantaged populations.

Keywords: Covid-19; social policies; health inequalities; socioeconomic status, syndemic.

  1. Rosengren A, Smyth A, Rangarajan S et al. Socioeconomic status and risk of cardiovascular disease in 20 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiologic (PURE) study. Lancet Global Health 2019; 7(6): e748-e760, DOI: 10.1016/S2214-109X(19)30045-2
  2. Naylor-Wardle J, Rowland B, Kunadian V, Socioeconomic status and cardiovascular health in the COVID-19 pandemic, Heart 2021; 107: 358-365,
  3. Abrams EM, Szefler SJ. COVID-19 and the impact of social determinants of health. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine 2020; 8(7): 659-661, DOI: 10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30234-4
  4. Hatef E, Chang HY, Kitchen C et al. Assessing the Impact of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Characteristics on COVID-19 Prevalence Across Seven States in the United States. Frontiers in Public Health 2020; 8: 571808.
  5. Mackey K, Ayers CK, Kondo KK, et al. Racial and Ethnic Disparities in COVID-19-Related Infections, Hospitalizations, and Deaths: A Systematic Review. Ann Intern Med 2021; 174(3): 362-373. DOI: 10.7326/M20-6306
  6. Di Gessa G, Maddock J, Green MJ, et al. Mental health inequalities in healthcare, economic, and housing disruption during COVID-19: an investigation in 12 longitudinal studies. MedRxiv. 2021; DOI: 10.1101/2021.04.0.21254765
  7. van Dorn A, Cooney RE, Sabin ML. COVID-19 exacerbating inequalities in the US. The Lancet 2020; 395: 1243-1244, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30893-X
  8. Sean A.P. Clouston, Ginny Natale, Bruce G. Link, Socioeconomic inequalities in the spread of coronavirus-19 in the United States: A examination of the emergence of social inequalities, Social Science & Medicine, Volume 268, 2021,
  9. Bambra C, Riordan R, Ford J et al. The COVID-19 pandemic and health inequalities. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2020; 74(11): 964-968,
  10. 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020; 69(27): 887-892,
  11. Waltenburg MA, Rose CE, Victoroff T, et al. Coronavirus Disease among Workers in Food Processing, Food Manufacturing, and Agriculture Workplaces. Emerg Infect Dis 2021; 27(1): 243-249,
  12. Burr JA, Mutchler JE, Gerst K. Patterns of residential crowding among Hispanics in later life: immigration, assimilation, and housing market factors. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2010; 65(6): 772-782,
  13. Bentley GR. Don’t blame the BAME: Ethnic and structural inequalities in susceptibilities to COVID-19. American Journal of Human Biology 2020; 32: e23478,
  14. Germain S, Yong A. COVID-19 Highlighting Inequalities in Access to Healthcare in England: A Case Study of Ethnic Minority and Migrant Women. Fem Leg Stud 2020; 28: 301-310,
  15. Topriceanu C, Wong A, Moon JC, et al, Evaluating access to health and care services during lockdown by the COVID-19 survey in five UK national longitudinal studies, BMJ Open 2021; 11: e045813,
  16. De Vogli R, Buio M, De Falco R, Gli effetti della sindemia COVID-19 su equità sanitaria e salute mentale. Epidemiologia & Prevenzione, 2021 (forthcoming).
  17. Liang L-L, Tseng C-H, Ho HJ et al. Covid-19 mortality is negatively associated with test number and government effectiveness. Scientific Reports 2020; 10(12567),
  18. Wang CJ, Ng CY, Brook RH. Response to COVID-19 in Taiwan: Big Data Analytics, New Technology, and Proactive Testing. JAMA 2020; 323(14): 1341-1342,
  19. Summers J, Cheng H-Y, Lin H-H et al. Potential lessons from the Taiwan and New Zeland health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Lancet Regional Health - Wester Pacific 2020; 4,
  20. Hassan I, Mukaigawara M, King L, Fernandes G, Sridhar D. Hindsight is 2020? Lessons in global health governance one year into the pandemic. Nat Med 2021; 27 (3): 396-400,
  21. FMI. World Economic Outlook Update, June 2020. A crisis like no other, an uncertain recovery. Washington, FMI, 2020. -- Disponibileall’indirizzo: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2020/06/24/WEOUpdateJune2020.
  22. Trevisan M, Le LC, Le AV. The COVID-19 pandemic: a view from Vietnam. American journal of public health 2020; 110(8): 1152-1153, DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2020.305751
  23. Tran T, Le TH, Nguyen T et al. Rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic: Vietnam government's experience and preliminary success. Journal of Global Health 2020; 10(2): 020502,
  24. Dickens BL, Koo JR, Lim JT et al. Modelling lockdown and exit strategies for COVID-19 in Singapore. The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific 2020; 1: 100004-100004,
  25. Jefferies S, French N, Gilkison C et al. COVID-19 in New Zealand and the impact of the national response: a descriptive epidemiological study. The Lancet Public Health 2020; 5(11): e612-e623,
  26. Starr D. How Italyʼs ̒father of the swabsʼ fought the virus. Science 2020; 369(6507): 1040-1041.
  27. De Falco, R., Human Rights, Fiscal Policy and Economic Pluralism: Building Inclusive Recovery after COVID-19. Peace Human Rights Governance 2020; 4(2), 215-246,
  28. SPI-B. The impact of financial and other targeted support on rates of selfisolation or quarantine. SPI-B, 16 September 2020. -- Disponibile all’indirizzo: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/925133/S0759_SPI-B__The_impact_of_financial_and_other_targeted_support_on_rates_of_self-isolation_or_quarantine_.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0OgDUe0zzSwekRuguZzPxT_1-jrA40qNwjMWcbzr6voDK1rt_bUDP7HWQ.
  29. Saez E, Zucman G. Keeping business alive: The government will pay. Social Europe, 18 March, 2020.
  30. Banca d’Italia. Principali risultati dell’indagine straordinaria sulle famiglie italiane nel 2020. Roma, Banca d’Italia, 2020. -- Available at: https://www.bancaditalia.it/media/notizie/2020/Evi-preliminari-ind-straord-famiglie.pdf.
  31. Al-Daini A. What has become of the £375 billion created by the Bank of England under quantitative easing? Huffington Post, 17 February 2015.
  32. Shaxson N. Tackling Tax Havens. The billions attracted by tax havens do harm to sending and receiving nations alike. FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT 2019; 56(3).
  33. De Vogli R. Mortality Crises in High-Income Countries: Evidence from the United States, United Kingdom, Italy and Greece. In: Popov V (ed). When Life Expectancy is Falling. Mortality Crises in Postcommunist Countries in the Global Context. New York, Nova Publishers, 2020.
  34. Singer M, Bulled N, Ostrach B et al. Syndemics and the biosocial conception of health. The Lancet 2017; 389(10072): 941-950.
  35. Financial Times. Covid-19. The global crisis – in data. Financial Times, 18 October 2020.
  36. Mugnai G, Bilato C, ‘Covid-19 in Italy: Lesson from the Veneto Region’ (2021) European Journal of Internal Medicine 77: 161,62,
  37. Yardeni E, Quintana M. Central Banks: Monthly Balance Sheets. Washington, Yardeni Research, 2020. -- Available at: https://www.yardeni.com/pub/peacockfedecbassets.pdf.
  38. World Bank Group. Global Economic Prospects. Washington, 2021. – Available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/global-economic-prospects, lastaccessed 01/08/2021.
  39. ILO. ILO Monitor: COVID-19 and the world of work. Seventh edition. Updated estimates and analysis. Ginevra, 2021. -- vailable at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/briefingnote/wcms_767028.pdf, last accessed 01/08/2021.
  40. ISTAT. Pil Italia 2020: calo dell’8,8%, leggermente meglio delle stime. Roma, ISTAT, 2021. -- Available at: https://www.corriere.it/economia/finanza/21_febbraio_02/pil-italia-2020-calo-dell-88percento-leggermente-meglio-stimeb3254410-6535-11eb-a6ae-1ce6c0f0a691.shtml. last accessed 01/08/2021.
  41. La Repubblica. Istat, perso un milione di posti di lavoro nell’anno della pandemia. L’emorragia si stabilizza a febbraio. 06 April 2021.
  42. Horton R. Offline: COVID-19 is not a pandemic. The Lancet 2020; 396(10255): 874. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32000-6
  43. Marmot M, Allen J. COVID-19: exposing and amplifying inequalities. J Epidemiol Community Health 2020; 74: 681-682.
  44. Liang L-L, Tseng C-H, Ho HJ et al. Covid-19 mortality is negatively associated with test number and government effectiveness. Scientific Reports 2020; 10(12567),
  45. Simons RL, Lei MK, Beach SRH, et al. Economic hardship and biological weathering: The epigenetics of aging in a U.S. sample of black women. Social Science & Medicine 2016; 150: 192-200,
  46. OMS. Malaria. T3: Test. Treat. Track Initiative. Ginevra, OMS, 2012. -- Disponibile all’indirizzo: https://www.who.int/malaria/areas/test_treat_track/en/.
  47. Contreras S, Dehning J, Loidolt M, et al. The challenges of containing SARSCoV-2 via test-trace-and-isolate. Nat Commun. 2021; 12: 378,
  48. Kretzschmar ME, Rozhnova G, Bootsma MC, et al. Impact of delays on effectiveness of contact tracing strategies for COVID-19: a modelling study. The Lancet Public Health 2020; 5(8): e452-e459, DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30157-2

Roberto De Vogli, Rossella De Falco, Socioeconomic inequalities and the Covid-19 Pandemic in "RIVISTA SPERIMENTALE DI FRENIATRIA" 2/2021, pp 25-35, DOI: 10.3280/RSF2021-002003