Luxembourg study finds COVID-19 disproportionally affected the poor

The major disparity is a problem for healthcare services that needs to be addressed

Yesterday, the Luxembourgish Minister of Health, Paulette Lenert, gave a press conference on a recently published study titled ‘The Social Gradient of the Pandemic’. The study was conducted by Statec, the Luxembourgish public statistical agency and the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research.

One of the main findings of the study was that the COVID-19 pandemic had a greater impact on the economically disadvantaged. Furthermore, the study found out that country of origin had an impact on vaccine willingness as well.

Taking the results seriously

Researchers also point out that there are correlations and they should not be interpreted as causes. Furthermore, there are likely to be a number of compounding factors, such as work-type, education and healthcare factors like diabetes and obesity. At the same time, housing size and an inability to self-isolate at home are also among the factors that could influence the results.

Minister Lenert was quoted by L’essentiel, explaining that the study revealed inequalities in the Grand Duchy’s otherwise ‘accessible’ healthcare system.

She also explained that they must be taken seriously from the perspective of health authorities and that health education in schools could be a key factor in bettering the situation in the future.

Less affluent households are more likely to get infected and hospitalised

According to the study, households earning less than 25,000 euros per year had a likelihood of 15% to suffer a Covid-infection. At the same time, with those earning 60,000 or more, the number was 12%. However, when it comes to countries of origin, researchers found quite a large disparity.

According to the data, those born in ex-Yugoslavian countries like Croatia, Serbia and etc had a likelihood of suffering an infection of more than 20%. For comparison, households with a German background had a likelihood of just under 10%.

Moreover, hospitalisation rates paint a similar picture. Out of all the people who have had a Covid-infection, those earning below 25,000 euros were the most likely to be hospitalised, at around 0.2%. On the other hand, people earning above 60,000 euros had a chance of around 0.1% to end up in a hospital.

Looking at the country of birth data, ex-Yugoslavians were worst off again, with a rate of 0.33%. On the other side of the spectrum, the Portuguese were the least likely to end up in a hospital, with a rate of around 0.21%.

Households from the former Yugoslavian countries were also the least likely to get the vaccine, and the same goes for those earning less than 25,000 euros per year.