Which Curve Are We Flattening? The Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 Among Economically Marginalized Communities in Ontario, Canada, Was Unchanged From Wild-Type to Omicron
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Abstract
Person-level surveillance (N = 14 million) and neighborhood-level income data were used to explore magnitude of inequalities in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths over 5 waves in Ontario, Canada. Despite attempts at equity-informed policies alongside fluctuating levels of public health measures, the magnitude of inequalities in hospitalizations and deaths remained unchanged across waves.
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Data are emerging to suggest social inequalities in COVID-19 deaths might have persisted into later pandemic waves in the UK, the US and Canada.
“Data are emerging to suggest social inequalities in COVID-19 deaths might have persisted into later pandemic waves in the UK(9), the US(10) and Canada(11).”
Existing studies on social inequalities in COVID-19 deaths over time were limited by ecological design and/or inability to account for potential confounders including comorbidities.
“However, these studies were limited by their ecological design(10,11) and/or inability to account for potential confounders including comorbidities(9,11).”
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Research works printed but not linked: 20
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Cited by
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Wang, L., Swayze, S., Bodner, K., Calzavara, A., Harrigan, S. P., Siddiqi, A., Baral, S. D., Austin, P. C., Smylie, J., Koh, M., et al. (2026) · American Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/aje/kwaf051 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Ma, H., Chan, A. K., Baral, S. D., Fahim, C., Straus, S., Sander, B., & Mishra, S.
- Affiliations
- St. Michael's Hospital (CA)
- Sunnybrook Health Science Centre (CA)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- University Health Network (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Mishra, Sharmistha
- ORCID
- Venue
- Open Forum Infectious Diseases
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2022-12-23
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- ofac690-ofac690
- ISSN
- 2328-8957 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9879750
- OpenAlex
- W4312180180
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2
- FWCI
- 1.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Open Forum Infectious Diseases (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- medRxiv (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Public Health Agency of Canada (2021-HQ-000143)
- Public Health Agency
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Tier 2, COVID-19)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, health disparities, socioeconomic disparities, hospitalization, COVID-19 mortality, Omicron variant, wild-type SARS-CoV-2, neighborhood income, public health measures, Ontario
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