Back to COVID-19 Project Mapping

Household level health and socio-economic vulnerabilities and the COVID-19 crisis: An analysis from the UK

Institution

University of St. Andrews

Country

United Kingdom

Type of Study

Cross-sectional, nationally representative study

Methodology

Multiple household-level indicators and principal component analysis

Key Focus of Study

Objectives: To investigate how COVID-19-related health and socio-economic vulnerabilities occur at the household level, and how they are distributed across household types and geographical areas in the United Kingdom. Main outcome measures: Using multiple household-level indicators and principal components analysis, we derive summary measures representing different dimensions of household vulnerabilities critical during the COVID-19 epidemic: health, employment, housing, financial and digital. Results: Our analysis highlights four key findings. First, although COVID-19 health risks are concentrated in retirement-age households, a substantial proportion of working age households also face these risks. Second, different types of households exhibit different vulnerabilities, with working-age households more likely to face financial, housing and employment precarities, and retirement-age households health and digital vulnerabilities. Third, there are area-level differences in the distribution of household-level -vulnerabilities across England and the constituent countries of the United Kingdom. Fourth, in many households, different dimensions of vulnerabilities intersect; this is especially prevalent among working-age households. Conclusions: The findings imply that the short- and long-term consequences of the COVID-19 crisis are likely to significantly vary by household type. Policy measures that aim to mitigate the health and socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic should consider how vulnerabilities cluster together across different household types, and how these may exacerbate already existing inequalities.

Key Stakeholders

Households

Sample size

19400 households

Date data expected

Available

Status

Finished

More information

Please find more information here