Socioeconomic inequalities in COVID-19 severity

Many findings have indicated the presence of socioeconomic inequalities in COVID-19 severity, with socioeconomically disadvantaged populations being hit harder. Severe disease outcomes, in terms of hospitalisation, admission to intensive care unit, and deaths, are highly concentrated among this less privileged group. This study is the first to assess the socioeconomic patterning of COVID-19 severity and its effect modification with multimorbidity in Hong Kong. It analysed 3074 local COVID-19 cases and the result showed that the socioeconomic patterning of COVID-19 severity is mild in Hong Kong, which can be attributed to the relatively capacious and equitable inpatient care. (Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Aug 2;18(15):8168. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18158168.)

Anyone interested in future collaboration in this field of research, you are welcome to contact our key investigator Prof. Jean WOO from the Department of Medicine & Therapeutics, CUHK. Prof. Woo’s research focuses on chronic diseases affecting elderly people, health services research, nutrition epidemiology, quality of life issues at the end of life.