ArticleBMC public health2024
Access to healthcare services during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional analysis of income and user-access across 16 economically diverse countries.
Article in BMC public health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effects of narrative-based interventions on self-efficacy and self-management in chronic disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2026Pooled it
- A physical activity and socioemotional intervention for residents of a large vulnerable community in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic: a randomized controlled study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Trial
- Global Viral Lower Respiratory Disease Episodes, Hospitalisations, and Clinical Outcomes by Aetiology, 2010-2021.Infectious diseases and therapy · 2026Article
- Geographical Inequalities in the Distribution of Healthcare Specialists in Poland.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Psychiatric symptoms of long COVID among adults: observational case-control study in Johannesburg, South Africa.BJPsych open · 2026Article
- The epidemic and socioeconomic factors shock: a long-term dynamic analysis of equity in infectious disease healthcare in China.International journal for equity in health · 2026Article
- Post-acute organ complications within one year following COVID-19 hospitalization and related socioeconomic inequalities.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Implementing a multi-centric cohort study during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in a resource-constrained setting: challenges, adaptive solutions, and lessons from Brazil.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2026Article
- Global, Regional, and National Burden of Stroke Attributable to High Systolic Blood Pressure in Adults Aged 45 Years and Above From 1990 to 2021, with Projections to 2045: A Systematic and Comprehensive Analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021.Archives of Iranian medicine · 2026Article
- Stillbirth burden and associated factors in Chengdu, Western China: a population-based retrospective study, 2019-2024.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Survival analysis of time to reimbursement of novel medicines in five Eurasian countries.Global health research and policy · 2025Article
- Psoriatic arthritis incidence and prevalence trajectory in Poland-public-payer, national-level, long-term data.Rheumatology international · 2025Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on disease-specific mortality, healthcare resource utilization, and disease burden across a population over 1 billion in 31 countries: an interrupted time-series analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Digital Health and Primary Health Care Quality: A Survey Case Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Pre-pregnancy care in general practice in England: cross-sectional observational study using administrative routine health data.BMC public health · 2025Observational
- Global burden and trend of stroke attributable to metabolic risks among young adults (20-39 years old) from 1990 to 2021.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2025Article
- Enhancing awareness and uptake of home-based care services during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic in Zambia.Journal of public health in Africa · 2025Article
- Determinants of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among healthcare personnel in a secondary-level health facility in Ghana.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundNational health systems have different strengths and resilience levels. During the COVID-19 pandemic, resources often had to be reallocated and this impacted the availability of healthcare services in many countries. To date there have been few quantitative contemporary studies of inequalities in access to healthcare within and between countries. In this study, we aim to compare inequality within and between 16 economically diverse countries.
methodsOnline surveys were conducted on 22 150 adults in 16 countries across six continents in 2022. Quota sampling and post-stratification weighting was used to obtain an age, gender, geographically, and educationally representative sample. The study assesses the differences in challenges in access to healthcare during the pandemic (for GP, surgical/clinical and digital GP services) using country-specific expanded health-needs-adjusted Erreygers' concentration indices and compares these values between countries using a Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.
resultsResults show wide variation in income-related challenges in access within countries for different types of care. For example, Erreygers' concentration index for digital services in Colombia exhibited highly regressive inequality at 0·17, compared to Japan with an index of -0·15. Inequalities between countries were also evident, with Spearman rank coefficients of -0·69 and -0·65 (p-values of 0·003 and 0·006) for digital and surgical access, indicating that lower income countries had greater inequality in healthcare access challenges.
conclusionDuring the pandemic, inequalities in challenges to accessing healthcare were greatest in low and middle-income countries. Digital technologies offer a reasonable means to address some of this inequality if adequate support is provided and accessible digital infrastructure exists.
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