Cited by 2,118Public Health and Social InequalitiesHealth disparities and outcomesHealthcare Systems and Challenges

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 51 of the 51 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 17 of the 50 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

The COVID-19 pandemic and health inequalities

Open access
Bambra, Clare, Riordan, Ryan, Ford, John, Matthews, Fiona·2020·Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

Abstract

This essay examines the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for health inequalities. It outlines historical and contemporary evidence of inequalities in pandemics—drawing on international research into the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918, the H1N1 outbreak of 2009 and the emerging international estimates of socio-economic, ethnic and geographical inequalities in COVID-19 infection and mortality rates. It then examines how these inequalities in COVID-19 are related to existing inequalities in chronic diseases and the social determinants of health, arguing that we are experiencing a syndemic pandemic . It then explores the potential consequences for health inequalities of the lockdown measures implemented internationally as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the likely unequal impacts of the economic crisis. The essay concludes by reflecting on the longer-term public health policy responses needed to ensure that the COVID-19 pandemic does not increase health inequalities for future generations.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1136/jech-2020-214401

Cites

51 of 51 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

17 of 50 cited sources checked · 6 supported · 1 flagged · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 46 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 21
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 2
23 of 23
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    14% of the population of England and Wales are from BAME backgrounds.

    “Only 14% of the population of England and Wales are from BAME backgrounds.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Most countries failed to pursue traditional public health surveillance measures and were forced to implement lockdowns.

    “While traditional public health surveillance measures of contact tracing and individual quarantine were successfully pursued by some countries (most notably by South Korea and Germany) as a way of tackling the virus in the early stages, most other countries failed to do so, and governments worldwide were eventually forced to implement mass quarantine measures -in the form of lockdowns.”
2 of 2

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

  • Conclusion attributes 1918 inequalities to COVID-19

    Minor

    The conclusion says inequalities both then and now arose through COVID-19. Earlier, the paper identifies the historical inequalities as occurring during the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, not the COVID-19 pandemic.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

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Show all 48 references

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Lacobucci G . GPs in deprived areas face severest pressures. BMJ . 2019;365:l2104.

Cited by

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Items 201–300 of 1,982

Metadata

Authors
Bambra, C., Riordan, R., Ford, J., & Matthews, F.
Affiliations
  • Newcastle University (GB)
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
Corresponding author
Bambra, Clare
Venue
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Publisher
BMJ
Published
2020-06-13
Volume
74
Issue
11
Pages
964-968
ISSN
  • 0141-7681 (ISSN-L)
  • 0143-005X
  • 1470-2738
OpenAlex
W3034285292
Cited by
2,118
References
48
Citations by year
2026: 216 · 2025: 196 · 2024: 298 · 2023: 364 · 2022: 508 · 2021: 454 · 2020: 80
FWCI
174.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Repository@Hull (Worktribe) (University of Hull) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
  • Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity)
Funders
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR200173)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Health › Public Health and Social Inequalities
  • Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare Systems and Challenges
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, health disparities, syndemic, social determinants of health, socioeconomic disparities, ethnic inequality, regional disparities, economic impact of lockdown, public health policy
MeSH terms
Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Humans, Pneumonia, Viral, Socioeconomic Factors, Coronavirus Infections, Health Status Disparities, Healthcare Disparities, Pandemics, Social Determinants of Health

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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

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Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

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