During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, social inequalities strongly influenced health-related quality of life in six countries: China, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. An online survey conducted between April and June 2020 among 17,607 people aged 18 to 75 revealed significant gaps based on education level, income, and employment status.<\/p>\n
Unemployed individuals consistently reported a worse quality of life in all countries, with lower health scores than those of employed individuals. However, the impact of education level and income varied by country. In the United Kingdom, the differences were most pronounced: people with low education or low income showed a significantly lower quality of life than other groups. In China and Italy, however, income did not appear to play a major role in these disparities.<\/p>\n
The survey used a standardized tool to assess five dimensions of health: mobility, self-care, daily activities, pain, and anxiety. Each dimension was scored from 1 to 5, with a higher score indicating more impaired health. The results confirmed that people with chronic illnesses, young people, and the unemployed were most affected by a decline in their quality of life.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States also showed that people with low incomes had a worse quality of life than those with higher incomes. In Sweden and the United Kingdom, the gaps between income groups were particularly clear, with a two-point difference in health scores. In China, however, education level did not have a significant impact on quality of life, unlike in other countries where less educated people consistently reported poorer health.<\/p>\n
Unemployment proved to be the most determining factor. In all countries, unemployed individuals had significantly lower health scores than employed individuals, with gaps of up to three points. This finding highlights the importance of job stability for well-being, especially during times of crisis. Chronic illnesses also played a major role, significantly reducing quality of life in all the countries studied.<\/p>\n
These observations highlight structural inequalities that persist even during a health crisis. They show that access to education, financial security, and employment remain essential pillars for good health, and their absence exacerbates social disparities.<\/p>\n
DOI:<\/strong> https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s11136-026-04285-x<\/a><\/p>\n Title:<\/strong> Socioeconomic inequalities in health-related quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic: a six-country comparison using the EQ-5D-5\u00a0L<\/p>\n Journal:<\/strong> Quality of Life Research<\/p>\n Publisher:<\/strong> Springer Science and Business Media LLC<\/p>\n Authors:<\/strong> Jo\u00eblle Eijkens; Joshua M. Bonsel; You-Shan Feng; M. F. Bas Janssen; Erica I. Lubetkin; Juanita A. Haagsma<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Unemployment worsens quality of life during the pandemic During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, social inequalities strongly influenced health-related quality of life in six countries: China, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. An online survey conducted between April and June 2020 among 17,607 people aged 18 to 75… Continue reading Unemployment worsens quality of life during the pandemic<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-international","category-society","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theinternationalfinancejournal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theinternationalfinancejournal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theinternationalfinancejournal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theinternationalfinancejournal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theinternationalfinancejournal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theinternationalfinancejournal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32,"href":"https:\/\/theinternationalfinancejournal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theinternationalfinancejournal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theinternationalfinancejournal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theinternationalfinancejournal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}