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. 2020 Nov;74(11):964-968.
doi: 10.1136/jech-2020-214401. Epub 2020 Jun 13.

The COVID-19 pandemic and health inequalities

Clare Bambra  1 , Ryan Riordan  2 , John Ford  2 , Fiona Matthews  3
Affiliations

The COVID-19 pandemic and health inequalities

Clare Bambra et al. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

This essay examines the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for health inequalities. It outlines historical and contemporary evidence of inequalities in pandemics-drawing on international research into the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918, the H1N1 outbreak of 2009 and the emerging international estimates of socio-economic, ethnic and geographical inequalities in COVID-19 infection and mortality rates. It then examines how these inequalities in COVID-19 are related to existing inequalities in chronic diseases and the social determinants of health, arguing that we are experiencing a syndemicpandemic It then explores the potential consequences for health inequalities of the lockdown measures implemented internationally as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the likely unequal impacts of the economic crisis. The essay concludes by reflecting on the longer-term public health policy responses needed to ensure that the COVID-19 pandemic does not increase health inequalities for future generations.

Keywords: DEPRIVATION; EMPLOYMENT; GENDER; GEOGRAPHY; Health inequalities.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: We have read and understood the BMJ Group policy on declaration of interests and declare the following interests: none.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The syndemic of COVID-19, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and the social determinants of health (adapted from Singer and Dahlgren and Whitehead).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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