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. 2022 Sep-Oct;36(5):488-492.
doi: 10.1016/j.gaceta.2021.10.004. Epub 2021 Oct 20.

Inequities in the distribution of COVID-19: an adaptation of WHO's conceptual framework

Hugo Vásquez-Vera  1 , Brenda Biaani León-Gómez  2 , Carme Borrell  3 , Constanza Jacques-Aviñó  4 , María José López  3 , Laura Medina-Perucha  5 , Maribel Pasarin  3 , Esther Sánchez-Ledesma  1 , Katherine Pérez  3
Affiliations

Inequities in the distribution of COVID-19: an adaptation of WHO's conceptual framework

Hugo Vásquez-Vera et al. Gac Sanit. 2022 Sep-Oct.

Abstract
in English, Spanish

The COVID-19 pandemic currently affects populations worldwide. Although everyone is susceptible to the virus, there are numerous accounts of the pandemic having a greater impact on lower socioeconomic groups and minorities, which is a ubiquitous phenomenon. It is essential for public health administrations and governments to uncover and understanding these inequities to develop proper intersectoral policies to tackle this crisis. Therefore, developing a conceptual framework on this topic, describing the social mechanisms that explain the unjust distribution of the incidence and mortality of COVID-19, is a key task. The aim of this paper is to adapt the framework on social determinants of health from the World Health Organization to the specifics of COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, it identifies and explains the structural and intermediate determinants involved in this pandemic, and adds some new elements (such as the role of the oppression systems and communication) which may help to understand, and ultimately tackle, social inequities in COVID-19 distribution.

La pandemia de COVID-19 afecta actualmente a poblaciones de todo el mundo. Aunque todas las personas son susceptibles de contraer la enfermedad, hay numerosos argumentos de que la pandemia tiene un mayor impacto en los grupos socioeconómicos más desfavorecidos y en las minorías, lo que es un fenómeno omnipresente. Es esencial que las Administraciones de salud pública y los gobiernos comprendan las desigualdades para desarrollar políticas intersectoriales adecuadas para hacer frente a esta crisis. Por lo tanto, es clave desarrollar un marco conceptual sobre este tema, que describa los mecanismos sociales que explican la injusta distribución de la incidencia y la mortalidad de la COVID-19. El objetivo de este trabajo es adaptar el marco sobre determinantes sociales de la salud de la Organización Mundial de la Salud a las particularidades de la pandemia de COVID-19, identificar y explicar los determinantes estructurales e intermedios implicados en esta pandemia, así como añadir algunos elementos nuevos (como el papel de los sistemas de opresión y la comunicación) que pueden ayudar a comprender, y en última instancia a abordar, las desigualdades sociales en la distribución de la COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Determinantes sociales de la salud; Factores socioeconómicos; Social determinants of health; Socioeconomic factors.

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Figure 1
Conceptual framework on unequal COVID-19 distribution.
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