ArticleJournal of epidemiology and community health2022
Inequitable impact of infection: social gradients in severe COVID-19 outcomes among all confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases during the first pandemic wave in Sweden.
Article in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Intersectional inequalities in COVID-19 hospitalisation and mortality: A nationwide MAIHDA study of Swedish adults across four pandemic waves (2020-2022).SSM - population health · 2026Article
- Post-acute organ complications within one year following COVID-19 hospitalization and related socioeconomic inequalities.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Dynamics of social inequalities in severe COVID-19 outcomes in metropolitan France from 2020 to 2022.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Patterns of healthcare contacts for decreased fetal movements in Sweden before and during the Covid-19 pandemic: a retrospective population-based cohort study.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Long COVID and its risk factors in migrants: a nationwide register study from Sweden.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Adaptation of the WHO COVID-19 Clinical Progression Scale for Registry-Based Data: A Whole-Population Study in Sweden.Clinical epidemiology · 2025Article
- From test to rest: evaluating socioeconomic differences along the COVID-19 care pathway in the Netherlands.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2024Observational
- How do clinicians use post-COVID syndrome diagnosis? Analysis of clinical features in a Swedish COVID-19 cohort with 18 months' follow-up: a national observational cohort and matched cohort study.BMJ public health · 2024Article
- COVID-19 hospitalization, mortality and pre-mature mortality by a history of immigration in Ontario, Canada: a population-based cohort study.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2024Article
- Inequalities in COVID-19 severe morbidity and mortality by country of birth in Sweden.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Waves of inequality: income differences in intensive care due to Covid-19 in Sweden.European journal of public health · 2023Article
- Ethnic inequalities in COVID-19 infection, hospitalisation, intensive care admission, and death: a global systematic review and meta-analysis of over 200 million study participants.EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
- Socioeconomic and ethnic disparities along five waves of the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons we have not yet learnt.Journal of nursing scholarship : an official publication of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing · 2023Article
- Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among public transport workers in Sweden.Journal of transport & health · 2022Article
- COVID-19 in people aged 18-64 in Sweden in the first year of the pandemic: Key factors for severe disease and death.Global epidemiology · 2022Article
- Severe COVID-19 in people 55 and older during the first year of the pandemic in Sweden.Journal of internal medicine · 2022Article
- The social gradient in COVID-19 vaccination intentions and the role of solidarity beliefs among adolescents.SSM - population health · 2022Article
- Association between pharmaceutical modulation of oestrogen in postmenopausal women in Sweden and death due to COVID-19: a cohort study.BMJ open · 2022Article
- ASPHER Statement: Facing the Fourth Winter of the COVID-19 Pandemic.Public health reviews · 2022Article
- COVID-19 and Gender Differences in Social Trust: Causal Evidence from the First Wave of the Pandemic.Socius : sociological research for a dynamic worldArticle
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundThe backdrop of the ubiquitous social inequalities has increasingly come into foreground in research on the COVID-19 pandemic, but the lack of high-quality population-based studies limits our understanding of the inequitable outcomes of the disease. The present study seeks to estimate social gradients in COVID-19 hospitalisations, intensive care admissions and death by education, income and country of birth, while taking into account disparities in comorbidities.
methodsWe used a register-based retrospective open cohort design enrolling all 74 659 confirmed SARS-CoV-2-positive cases aged >25 years in Sweden during the first wave of the pandemic (until 14 September 2020). Information was retrieved from multiple registers and linked by the unique Swedish personal identity number concerning COVID-19 case identification; COVID-19 hospitalisations, intensive care admissions and death; comorbidities as measured by the Charlson Comorbidity Index; and sociodemographic information. Social gradients were estimated by the Relative Index of Inequality (RII) using Cox regression.
resultsAdjusted analyses showed significant social gradients in COVID-19 hospitalisation, intensive care admission, across education, income and country of birth, which were unaffected by adjustment for comorbidities. Education and country of birth gradients were stronger for hospitalisation and intensive care admissions but small to non-existent for death. In contrast, income gradients were consistent across all three COVID-19 outcomes.
conclusionSocial gradients in severe COVID-19 outcomes are widespread in Sweden, but appear to be unrelated to pre-existing health disparities. Inequitable outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection may therefore be at least partially avoidable and could rely on equitable management of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
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