Inequality and COVID-19 in Sweden
Inequality and COVID-19 in Sweden
Image Anthony K.D (via Shutterstock)
CRIS Scientific Seminar 2022-2023
Friday, March 24th 2023, 11:30 am
Sciences Po (1, place Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin) - Room K008
Inequality and COVID-19 in Sweden:
Relative risks of nine negative life events, along four social gradients, in pandemic vs. pre-pandemic years
Olof Östergren
Researcher, Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University
The COVID-19 pandemic struck societies directly and indirectly, impacting population health and disrupting many aspects of life. The burdens of the pandemic fell more heavily on some groups than others. These different consequences of the spreading virus ---and the measures to fight them--- are reported and analyzed in different scientific fora, with hard-to-compare methods that largely follow disciplinary boundaries. As a result, it is hard to grasp the pandemic's full impact on social inequalities.
This presentation relies on individual-level, administrative data for Sweden's entire population to describe how different social groups fared in terms of nine outcomes: three types of COVID-19 incidence, as well as six other negative life outcomes reflecting health, economic conditions and health care access. The outcomes are all defined as binary events and expressed as the risks of experiencing a negative event. Relative risks are calculated by gender, region of birth, education, and income using the population average risk as the reference for all groups.
During 2020, the population faced severe morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 and saw higher all-cause mortality, income losses and unemployment risks, as well as reduced access to medical care. In terms of relative risks versus mean risks in the population, these burdens fell disproportionately on those with low income or education, and on residents born outside of Sweden. However, the relative risks across social groups were strikingly similar to those in pre-pandemic years.
The pandemic struck Swedes unequally across several dimensions and along multiple social gradients. Despite at-risk groups experiencing larger excess risks for direct and indirect consequences of the pandemic, relative social inequalities were strikingly similar to those in pre-pandemic years.
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