Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic on the role of socioeconomic status in health outcomes (original) (raw)

This open access Article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). All documents in PDXScholar should meet accessibility standards. If we can make this document more accessible to you, contact our team. Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Role of Socioeconomic Status in Health Outcomes Leila Karout Current Characteristics and Outcomes of COVID-19 The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has evoked extreme circumstances for many around the world. As of the time of this writing, the World Health Organization has reported 159,319,384 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 3,311,780 deaths globally. The United States alone has seen a total of 32,424,637 confirmed cases and 576,814 total deaths. 1 While risk factors, clinical characteristics of patients, mortality, and morbidity are all under consistent study, the information we have now on the pandemic and its effects on various populations shows similar patterns and themes. Current research has shown that severe obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and kidney disease are the most prevalent underlying health conditions for individuals with COVID-19. These conditions have demonstrated an increase in morbidity of the virus. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 8, 9 As of May 18th, 2020, the CDC reported 8,134 (76.4%) of deaths from COVID 19 to be associated with at least one underlying medical condition (including 83.1% of deaths for those under 65 years). The most common being cardiovascular disease (60.9%), diabetes mellitus (39.5%), chronic kidney disease (20.8%), and chronic lung disease (19.2%). 7 SES is a complex composition of social and economic factors that influence an individual, or a community's experiences. Socioeconomic status (SES) plays a substantial role in an individual's life due to the resources and opportunities that come along with it such as education, quality healthcare access, financial stability, social status, and race/ethnicity as a socioeconomic factor. 38 Individuals from lower SES are at a higher risk for illness susceptibility and severity. 12,13 This is especially prevalent during the current pandemic, where daily life has drastically changed, including detrimental social and financial challenges for many. Psychological stress due to restrictions on social behavior, the ability to see loved ones, and having an unstable occupation, has created outcomes such as depression, health anxiety, and financial worry. 18 Low SES can aggravate these outcomes due to the higher likelihood of risk factors such as pre-existing financial instability, lack of healthcare access, and the higher prevalence of pre-existing diseases associated with COVID-19 such as asthma, CVD, hypertension, chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes, and obesity. 10, 9, 19, 20 Therefore, it is essential to examine the role of SES during the COVID-19 pandemic to be better prepared to protect the most at-risk populations and find room for improvement in the