Income-related health inequalities associated with Covid-19 in South Africa

In this paper, the authors examined whether income-related inequalities in health became more pro-poor in the COVID-19 era relative to before the epidemic. Furthermore, they ascertained the variables that predict observed income-related health inequality in South Africa during the epidemic. To achieve the foregoing, the researches estimated concentration indices of poor health (defined as self-reporting fair or poor health relative to reporting excellent, very good or good health) in both 2017 (representing the pre- COVID-19period) and the period of the State of National Disaster (representing the COVID-19 period).

The results indicate that poor health was pro-poor in both the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods. In other words, poor health was more than proportionately concentrated on the poor. However, the magnitude of income-related inequality in poor health in the COVID-19 period was about six times that of the pre-COVID-19 period, suggesting that the crisis affected the health of the poor far more than the relatively well-off. Furthermore, income-related health inequalities were more pronounced among men than women in both periods.