ArticleInternational journal for equity in health2022
Unaffordability of COVID-19 tests: assessing age-related inequalities in 83 countries.
Article in International journal for equity in health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Gender-Based Socio-Economic Inequalities in the Pre-Vaccination Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Istanbul: A Neighborhood-Level Analysis of Excess Mortality.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- KCL TEST: an open-source inspired asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 surveillance programme in an academic institution.Biology methods & protocols · 2024Article
- Catastrophic health expenditure during the COVID-19 pandemic in five countries: a time-series analysis.The Lancet. Global health · 2023Article
- Feasibility, Uptake, and Results of COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests among Refugees and Migrants in a Pilot Project in North-West Syria.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2023Article
- The many revelations of and about inequality data in the context of COVID-19: introducing a special issue on COVID-19 and inequality.International journal for equity in health · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDiagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2 is critical to manage the pandemic and its different waves. The requirement to pay out-of-pocket (OOP) for testing potentially represents both a financial barrier to access and, for those who manage to make the payment, a source of financial hardship, as they may be forced to reduce spending on other necessities. This study aims to assess age-related inequality in affordability of COVID-19 tests.
methodsDaily data from the Global COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey among adult respondents across 83 countries from July 2020 to April 2021 was used to monitor age-related inequalities across three indicators: the experiences of, first, reducing spending on necessities because of paying OOP for testing, second, facing financial barriers to get tested (from January to April 2021), and third, having anxiety related to household finance in the future. Logistic regressions were used to assess the association of age with each of these.
resultsAmong the population ever tested, the adjusted odds of reducing spending on necessities due to the cost of the test decreased non-linearly with age from 2.3 [CI95%: 2.1-2.5] among ages 18-24 to 1.6 [CI95%: 1.5-1.8] among ages 45-54. Among the population never tested, odds of facing any type of barrier to testing were highest among the youngest age group 2.5 [CI95%:2.4-2.5] and decreased with age. Finally, among those reporting reducing spending on necessities, the odds of reporting anxiety about their future finances decreased non-linearly with age, with the two younger groups being 2.4-2.5 times more anxious than the oldest age group. Among those reporting financial barriers due to COVID-19 test cost, there was an inverse U-shape relationship.
conclusionsCOVID-19 testing was associated with a reduction in spending on necessities at varying levels by age. Younger people were more likely to face financial barrier to get tested. Both negative outcomes generated anxiety across all age-groups but more frequently among the younger ones. To reduce age-related inequalities in the affordability of COVID-19 test, these findings support calls for exempting everyone from paying OOP for testing and, removing other type of barriers than financial ones.
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