ArticleEClinicalMedicine2022
Burden of Covid-19 restrictions: National, regional and global estimates.
Article in EClinicalMedicine, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mental health issues and associated factors amongst healthcare workers in US forensic-correctional settings: a systematic review of literature since the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC health services research · 2026Pooled it
- The Evolving Landscape of Discrete Choice Experiments in Health Economics: A Systematic Review.PharmacoEconomics · 2025Pooled it
- Implications for distancing measures on in-person school and work attendance from Italian post-pandemic social contact data.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- The impact of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on general practitioner contacts among patients with common and at-risk diagnoses: a Norwegian registry-based study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2025Article
- Perceived infection risk, infection exposure, and compliance to infection control measures among the first COVID-19 patients in Norway.Scandinavian journal of public health · 2025Article
- Effect of a three-years preventive medicine vocational education program on county-level healthcare workforce development in China: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Impact of COVID-19 therapeutics on the development of post-infectious lung fibrosis.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Preferences for the Societal Impacts of a Pandemic when it Transitions into an Endemic: A Discrete Choice Experiment.The patient · 2025Article
- Factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination rates in countries with different income levels: a panel analysis.BMC public health · 2024Article
- A systematic framework for understanding the microbiome in human health and disease: from basic principles to clinical translation.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2024Review
- Evaluation of antibody responses in healthy individuals receiving SARS-CoV-2 inactivated vaccines.Biosafety and health · 2024Article
- In-hospital real-time prediction of COVID-19 severity regardless of disease phase using electronic health records.PloS one · 2024Article
- Editorial: Immunological aspects of emerging and re-emerging zoonoses.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Predictors of COVID-19 vaccine acceptability among refugees and other migrant populations: A systematic scoping review.PloS one · 2024Article
- Gambling on others' health: risky pro-social decision-making in the era of COVID-19.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Article
- Associations between the stringency of COVID-19 containment policies and health service disruptions in 10 countries.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Subjective burden of government-imposed Covid-19 restrictions in Switzerland: Evidence from the 2022 LINK Covid-19 survey.PloS one · 2023Article
- Building a precision medicine infrastructure at a national level: The Swedish experience.Cambridge prisms. Precision medicine · 2023Review
- Non-pharmaceutical interventions and urban vehicle mobility in Seoul during the COVID-19 pandemic.Cities (London, England) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA growing literature has documented the high global morbidity, mortality and mental health burden associated with the current Covid-19 pandemic. In this paper, we aimed to quantify the total utility and quality of life loss resulting from Covid-19-related government restrictions imposed at the national, regional and global levels.
methodsWe conducted quality of life online surveys in France, India, Italy, UK and the United States of America between June 21st and September 13th 2021, and used regression models to estimate the average quality of life loss due to light and severe restrictions in these countries. We then combined estimated disutility weights from the pooled sample with the latest data on Covid-19 restrictions exposure in each country to estimate the total disutility generated by restrictions at the national, regional and global level. We also embedded a discrete choice experiment (DCE) into the online survey to estimate average willingness to pay to avoid specific restrictions.
findingsA total of 947 surveys were completed. Thirty-five percent of respondents were female, and 69.5% were between 18 and 39 years old. The weighted average utility weight was 0.71 (95% CIs 0.69-0.74) for light restrictions, and 0.65 (0.63-0.68) for severe restrictions. At the global scale, this implies a total loss of 3259 million QALYs (95% 3021, 3496) as of September 6th, 2021, with the highest burden in lower and upper middle-income countries. Utility losses appear to be particularly large for closures of schools and daycares as well as restaurants and bars, and seem relatively small for wearing masks and travel restrictions.
interpretationThe results presented here suggest that the QALY losses due to restrictions are substantial. Future mitigation strategies should try to balance potential reductions in disease transmission achievable through specific measures against their respective impact on quality of life. Additional research is needed to determine differences in restriction-specific disutilities across countries, and to determine optimal policy responses to similar future disease threats.
fundingNo funding was received for this project.
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