Monday, December 4, 2023 | The Latest Research, Commentary, and News from Health Affairs
Dear John,
The December 2023 issue of Health Affairs is devoted entirely to exploring lessons learned around the globe from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Articles in the issue cover topics including how modeling was used to respond to the pandemic, how health inequities emerged and were addressed, and how countries attempted to protect their most vulnerable residents.
Modeling
Mark Jit and coauthors reflect on epidemiological modeling conducted in Western Europe to describe and predict the spread of COVID-19 and the likely effects of mitigation measures.
Noting that most models focused on disease outcomes rather than economic, educational, or other outcomes, they conclude, “More comprehensive evaluations and greater interdisciplinarity may have strengthened the ability of models to inform decision making and improve public perception.”
Adolfo Rubinstein and coauthors use an “integrated epidemiological-economic model to evaluate how the mitigation policies adopted by governments affected the trajectory of the pandemic and the economy as a whole” in Argentina, Brazil, Jamaica, and Mexico.
Finding that the trade-off between lives and livelihoods differed across countries, they conclude that policy makers must understand this balance when responding to pandemics.
Per capita COVID-19 death rates varied by more than two orders of magnitude across countries, despite the adoption of generally similar nonpharmaceutical interventions.
Tse Yang Lim and coauthors analyze data from more than 100 countries and conclude that risk perception and how responsive policy was to perceived risk explain much of this variation.
A Commentary by Peter Hotez describes the need for a two-pronged approach to global vaccine equity: supporting vaccine production in low- and middle-income countries and addressing vaccine refusal and hesitancy.
Ashley Fox and coauthors seek to understand the reasons for low COVID-19 vaccination rates in seventeen low- and middle-income countries in the Western Pacific and Africa regions.
Using survey data, they determine that about half of unvaccinated people were unable to obtain the vaccine, whereas half were unwilling to be vaccinated, with substantial variation in this ratio across countries.
They find that socioeconomically disadvantaged groups perceived the policies as being stricter and that having higher levels of trust in COVID-19 information was associated with lower perceived policy stringency.
Esra Eren Bayindir and coauthors find that existing socioeconomic disparities in all-cause mortality rates and inpatient utilization in Germany were largely unchanged during the COVID-19 pandemic, except for ambulatory care–sensitive admissions.
They find that disruptions in essential health services particularly affected poorer states and those populations already experiencing disparities in access.
Cristian Herrera and coauthors present the results of interviews with health decision makers in eight Latin American and Caribbean countries regarding their efforts to preserve routine health services during the pandemic.
Malvikha Manoj and coauthors assess the COVID-19 Health Justice Policy Tracker, a tool they developed that catalogues national policies to address COVID-19 across six vulnerable population groups in forty countries.
Among the 610 policies identified, most target children and the elderly and are designed to provide financial support.
Jennifer Seager and coauthors assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on adolescents in social domains such as education, economic participation, early marriage, self-reported health, and food security in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Jordan.
Using longitudinal survey data, they find evidence of worsening outcomes in all domains other than self-reported health, with already-vulnerable adolescents experiencing the largest declines in social well-being.
Their research suggests that there was “elevated risk for negative mental health outcomes associated with COVID-19” and that women and less-educated people were at greatest risk for depression and loneliness.
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The December 2023 issue of Health Affairs explores lessons learned around the globe from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal is available in print and online.
Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has published Health Affairs since 1981.
