Universal health care delivery mitigates socioeconomic-related risk for adverse outcomes in hospitalised patients: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia

Fahimeh Faqihi, Rita Perri, Jimmy Chien, Jin-Gun Cho, Stephen Milne, Shopna Bag, Nicole Gilroy, John R Wheatley and Kristina Kairaitis

PLOS ONE, 2025, vol. 20, issue 5, 1-14

Abstract: Background: Internationally, socioeconomic disadvantage is related to severe outcomes of COVID-19. We investigated the impact of socioeconomic disadvantage on infection rates, hospitalisation, and in-hospital outcomes for COVID-19 with standardised medical care. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study included SARS-CoV-2 PCR-confirmed patients ≥18 years, admitted to a major public hospital between January 2020 and December 2021. Severe COVID-19 outcomes were defined by a composite outcome of in-hospital death or other critical complications. A generalised linear regression model of demographic features, co-existing conditions, and socioeconomic status was used to determine the risks of the composite outcome. Results: Of 797,343 individuals ≥18 years in the health district, 50,906 (6.4%) were PCR-positive, and 1,962 were hospitalised. Compared with the whole health district population, infected individuals were younger (median [interquartile range] age 35 [25–48] years vs 42 [31–58] years) and from areas with the greatest socioeconomic disadvantage (34.4% vs 20%; both p

Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0322780

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0322780

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