ArticleJournal of epidemiology and community health2020
Scaling COVID-19 against inequalities: should the policy response consistently match the mortality challenge?
Article in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Assessing the effects of population-level political, economic and social exposures, interventions and policies on inclusive economy outcomes for health equity in high-income countries: a systematic review of reviews.Systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Understanding changes to life expectancy and inequalities in the UK, Germany, and other high-income countries.Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2025Review
- Trends in psychological distress in Great Britain, 1991-2019: evidence from three representative surveys.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2023Article
- Measuring disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to COVID-19 in Scotland, 2020.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2022Article
- Aggressive measures, rising inequalities, and mass formation during the COVID-19 crisis: An overview and proposed way forward.Frontiers in public health · 2022Review
- Population perspective comparing COVID-19 to all and common causes of death during the first wave of the pandemic in seven European countries.Public health in practice (Oxford, England) · 2021Article
- Population health post-pandemic: critiquing the economic approach to recovery.Public health in practice (Oxford, England) · 2021Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on life expectancy at birth in India: a decomposition analysis.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Inequalities in population health loss by multiple deprivation: COVID-19 and pre-pandemic all-cause disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in Scotland.International journal for equity in health · 2021Article
- National movement patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand: the unexplored role of neighbourhood deprivation.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2021Article
- Epidemiology and diagnosis, environmental resources quality and socio-economic perspectives for COVID-19 pandemic.Journal of environmental management · 2021Review
- The contribution of changes to tax and social security to stalled life expectancy trends in Scotland: a modelling study.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2020Article
- Valuing the years of life lost due to COVID-19: the differences and pitfalls.International journal of public health · 2020Article
- Burden of Disease Methods: A Guide to Calculate COVID-19 Disability-Adjusted Life Years.International journal of public healthArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe mortality impact of COVID-19 has thus far been described in terms of crude death counts. We aimed to calibrate the scale of the modelled mortality impact of COVID-19 using age-standardised mortality rates and life expectancy contribution against other, socially determined, causes of death in order to inform governments and the public.
methodsWe compared mortality attributable to suicide, drug poisoning and socioeconomic inequality with estimates of mortality from an infectious disease model of COVID-19. We calculated age-standardised mortality rates and life expectancy contributions for the UK and its constituent nations.
resultsMortality from a fully unmitigated COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to be responsible for a negative life expectancy contribution of -5.96 years for the UK. This is reduced to -0.33 years in the fully mitigated scenario. The equivalent annual life expectancy contributions of suicide, drug poisoning and socioeconomic inequality-related deaths are -0.25, -0.20 and -3.51 years, respectively. The negative impact of fully unmitigated COVID-19 on life expectancy is therefore equivalent to 24 years of suicide deaths, 30 years of drug poisoning deaths and 1.7 years of inequality-related deaths for the UK.
conclusionFully mitigating COVID-19 is estimated to prevent a loss of 5.63 years of life expectancy for the UK. Over 10 years, there is a greater negative life expectancy contribution from inequality than around six unmitigated COVID-19 pandemics. To achieve long-term population health improvements it is therefore important to take this opportunity to introduce post-pandemic economic policies to 'build back better'.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.