Study links long Covid risk to social deprivation

The risk of contracting long Covid is strongly associated with social deprivation, with people living in the most deprived areas 46% more likely to end up with long-term symptoms, a study has suggested.

The research in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine analysed more than 200,000 working-age adults and is believed to be the first to quantify the association between long Covid and socio-economic status across a range of occupations.

Analysing data from the Office for National Statistics’ Covid-19 Infection Survey, the researchers also found that women had a higher risk of long Covid.

The risk of long Covid in women in the least deprived areas was comparable to that of males in the most deprived areas, the study argued.

People living in the most deprived areas and working in the healthcare and education sectors had the highest risk of long Covid compared to the least deprived areas.

There was, however, no significant association between the risk of long Covid and the most and least deprived areas for people working in the manufacturing and construction sectors.

Lead researcher Dr Nazrul Islam, of the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford, and Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton, said: “Although certain occupational groups, especially frontline and essential workers, have been unequally affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, studies on long Covid and occupation are sparse.

“Our findings are consistent with pre-pandemic research on other health conditions, suggesting that workers with lower socio-economic status have poorer health outcomes and higher premature mortality than those with higher socio-economic position but a similar occupation. However, the socio-economic inequality may vary considerably by occupation groups,” he added.

The researchers have argued their findings indicate the need for a diverse range of public health interventions after recovery from Covid-19, with interventions taking account of multiple intersecting social dimensions.

Future health policy recommendations, they say, should incorporate the multiple dimensions of inequality, such as sex, deprivation and occupation, when considering the treatment and management of long Covid.

Dr Islam added: “The inequalities shown in this study show that such an approach can provide more precise identification of risks and be relevant to other diseases and beyond the pandemic.

“These findings will help inform health policy in identifying the most vulnerable sub-groups of populations so that more focused efforts are given, and proportional allocation of resources are implemented, to facilitate the reduction of health inequalities,” she added.