Satherley Nicole, Sporle Andrew
iNZight Analytics Ltd.
Department of Statistics, University of Auckland.
Int J Popul Data Sci. 2025 May 27;10(1):2930. doi: 10.23889/ijpds.v10i1.2930. eCollection 2025.
The COVID-19 pandemic produced social inequities in health outcomes between and within nations. Reported inequitable COVID-19 outcomes for ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples are likely to be associated in part because of poorer socioeconomic circumstances experienced by these populations. Understanding these associations within national populations is vital for future pandemic management.
This study explores the social inequity of COVID-19 outcomes within New Zealand over the first 3 years of the pandemic. We aimed to identify policy amenable socioeconomic factors associated with COVID-19 outcomes while adjusting for relevant individual factors and household structure. We also aimed to examine whether ethnic group differences are smaller when accounting for these socioeconomic factors and household structure.
Administrative individual-level data for the New Zealand population was analysed to assess COVID-19 health outcomes during 2020 - 2023. The association between individual (e.g. age, ethnicity, disability status), household structure (e.g. household composition) and socioeconomic (e.g. crowding, housing quality, deprivation) factors and four COVID-19 health outcomes - infection, hospitalisation, mortality, and vaccination status was assessed.
Indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities experienced worse outcomes across most COVID-19 outcomes. Adjusting for household structure and socioeconomic factors reduced but did not eliminate these inequities between ethnic groups. Housing issues including high housing mobility, poor quality housing, and household crowding were associated with worse outcomes, as were disability status, no primary health care enrolment, lower household income and older age. The size of these effects also differed for different health outcomes.
Ethnic inequity was persistent and likely partly explained by policy-modifiable social factors, despite the relatively minor population health impacts of COVID-19 in New Zealand. We also demonstrate how a range of socioeconomic determinants predict COVID-19 outcomes in different ways.
新冠疫情在不同国家之间以及国家内部造成了健康结果方面的社会不平等。报告显示，少数族裔和原住民在新冠疫情中的不平等结果可能部分归因于这些人群较差的社会经济状况。了解国家人口内部的这些关联对于未来的疫情管理至关重要。
本研究探讨了新冠疫情头三年新西兰境内新冠疫情结果的社会不平等情况。我们旨在确定与新冠疫情结果相关的、适合政策调整的社会经济因素，同时对相关个体因素和家庭结构进行调整。我们还旨在研究在考虑这些社会经济因素和家庭结构后，种族差异是否会缩小。
分析了新西兰人口的行政个体层面数据，以评估2020 - 2023年期间的新冠疫情健康结果。评估了个体因素（如年龄、种族、残疾状况）、家庭结构（如家庭构成）和社会经济因素（如居住拥挤程度、住房质量、贫困程度）与四种新冠疫情健康结果——感染、住院、死亡和疫苗接种状况之间的关联。
在大多数新冠疫情结果方面，原住民和少数族裔的情况更糟。对家庭结构和社会经济因素进行调整后，种族之间的这些不平等有所减少，但并未消除。住房问题，包括高住房流动性、低质量住房和家庭居住拥挤，与较差的结果相关，残疾状况、未登记初级医疗保健、较低的家庭收入和较高的年龄也是如此。这些影响的大小在不同的健康结果中也有所不同。
尽管新冠疫情对新西兰人口健康的影响相对较小，但种族不平等仍然存在，并且可能部分由可通过政策改变的社会因素来解释。我们还展示了一系列社会经济决定因素如何以不同方式预测新冠疫情结果。
