COVID-19 and economic outcomes

The sudden appearance of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2 virus; COVID-19) in 2019 caused substantial changes to our daily lives. The COVID-19 pandemic had substantial economic impacts on health and health care services, triggered a national lockdown, introduced social distancing rules, and closed schools. Many households, particularly the self-employed and households with children, struggled with deteriorating well-being, limited access to health care and reduced daily income. Nevertheless, there has been a paucity of evidence based on survey data collected from adults in the UK that measures the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a previous study, we successfully estimated the impacts of COVID-19 on the well-being and health-related quality of life of individuals and households in the UK using EMIS Health Survey data. EMIS Health and Patient Access has developed a COVID-19 Symptom Surveillance tool in collaboration with the Royal College of General Practitioner’s Research and Surveillance Centre and the University of Oxford. The tool also provides data on the impact the pandemic had on the employment status, health and social care resource use, changes in work patterns and lost income of survey respondents.

In this study, as an extension to the previous study, we plan to analyse data collected as part of the survey with the purpose of estimating the economic impacts associated with COVID-19. We will assess how these economic impacts varied by a range of factors, including symptoms associated with the COVID-19, stage of illness, socioeconomic status, sociodemographic characteristics, and stages of economic lockdown.

For policy makers, the findings of this study can be used to feed into their estimation of impacts of policy decisions such as school closures and a national lockdown. For researchers, the economic estimates of this study can also be used as data inputs for economic evaluations of prevention and management strategies for COVID-19. For further research, we will set up a system that links survey data to electronic health records for future economic analyses.

Our Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) plan will be reviewed by PPI contributors who have agreed to participate in this study. Our PPI panel will provide information about their experiences of health care service use and productivity losses during the pandemic and assist with data interpretation and dissemination of study results.

The findings of this study will be shared with government ministries, other stakeholders and academic researchers so that they can use the data to feed into their estimation of impacts of policy decisions. Research findings of this study will be disseminated through the NIHR, peer-reviewed publications, and presentations at national and international conferences (e.g. UK HESG and iHEA).

Amount Awarded: £41,886