Project #95:
COVID-19 Collateral

This study will investigate the negative impacts of the pandemic on a range mental and physical health conditions not directly related to coronavirus and identify how these impacts differ by ethnicity, and socio-economic status. Understanding these negative impacts will inform future healthcare policy by identifying population groups at high risk and identifying health conditions most negatively affected by the social restrictions and healthcare burden caused by the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused substantial illness and death, with the impacts most serious for older adults, ethnic minority groups, and socially deprived populations. In addition to illness and death caused by COVID-19 itself, the pandemic has had effects on wider mental and physical health. Reasons for this include reduced resources for the prevention, monitoring and treatment of illnesses un-related to COVID-19, and individual concerns around fear of exposure to the virus and burdening of already stretched health care systems. Mental health and wellbeing may be negatively affected by anxiety related to social-isolation, limits on household and social mixing, loss of employment or income, and increased burden of childcare.

This study will compare clinical monitoring, hospital admissions and death for diabetes, lung disease, heart disease, and mental health between the UK, Denmark, and Sweden. The study will explore 1) whether these adverse outcomes differ by ethnicity, and social-deprivation, and 2) whether risks have changed over time as population restrictions have been introduced and lifted. Comparisons between countries will help determine whether certain public health approaches are associated with better health outcomes.