Sammendrag
Key messages
Persons with low education and persons with low household income have been hit harder by the COVID-19 pandemic than the rest of the population. Groups with low education and income have in general been overrepresented in confirmed cases, hospitalizations, invasive ventilation, and deaths related to COVID-19, compared to groups with higher education and higher household income. Persons with higher education and persons with higher household income were overrepresented in confirmed cases and related hospitalizations in the beginning of the first wave of the pandemic, while persons with low education and low household income have had the highest relative numbers of confirmed cases and related hospitalizations during the rest of the study period (until May 2021). There was a positive correlation between increasing education from below upper secondary education to university/college education and test rate. For income, the relationship after 15th June 2020 was slightly S-shaped, with generally higher test rate in the higher income deciles compared to the lower income deciles. When we adjust for age, sex, municipality of residence and country of birth, the differences in confirmed cases and related hospitalizations decrease, however are rarely eliminated. People with lower education remain slightly overrepresented in confirmed cases and related hospitalizations also after adjustment. However, the overrepresentation of confirmed cases among people with lower household income was fully attenuated after adjustments. The highest income groups still had a somewhat lower hospitalisation rate. The positive relationship between test rate and education (from below upper secondary education to university/college education), and between testing rate and household income remained after adjustments. Overall, adjustment for country of birth made the most difference to the results, especially for the category undisclosed/no education, which was predominantly made up of immigrants. This report demonstrates that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit people with low education and household income disproportionately, although adjustment for age, sex, municipality of residence and country of birth decreases the differences. We have not fully examined possible reasons why some groups are overrepresented, but family and household structure, employment, health literacy, delayed access to health services or underlying diseases are discussed as underlying reasons. It will be important to obtain more knowledge about these or other mechanisms behind the overrepresentation in future studies.
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