Long-term health conditions and UK labour market outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background Long-term health conditions can affect labour market outcomes. COVID-19 may have increased labour market inequalities, e.g. due to restricted opportunities for clinically vulnerable people. Evaluating COVID-19’s impact could help target support. Aim To quantify the effect of several long-term conditions on UK labour market outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic and compare them to pre-pandemic outcomes. Methods The Understanding Society COVID-19 survey collected responses from around 20,000 UK residents in nine waves from April 2020-September 2021. Participants employed in January/February 2020 with a variety of long-term conditions were matched with people without the condition but with similar baseline characteristics. Models estimated probability of employment, hours worked and earnings. We compared these results with results from a two-year pre-pandemic period. We also modelled probability of furlough and home-working frequency during COVID-19. Results Most conditions (asthma, arthritis, emotional/nervous/psychiatric problems, vascular/pulmonary/liver conditions, epilepsy) were associated with reduced employment probability and/or hours worked during COVID-19, but not pre-pandemic. Furlough was more likely for people with pulmonary conditions. People with arthritis and cancer were slower to return to in-person working. Few effects were seen for earnings. Conclusion COVID-19 had a disproportionate impact on people with long-term conditions’ labour market outcomes.

The Effect of the COVID Pandemic on Clinical Psychology Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…In the years examined prior to the COVID pandemic (2015 and 2018), there were nearly twice as many research articles published that examined mental health in women than in men. Although the COVID pandemic exacerbated many pre-existing disparities in other areas of society (e.g., [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 33 ]), the values in Table 1 show that the number of published research articles that examined mental health in women and men remained at an approximately two-fold difference in the years examined after the start of the COVID pandemic (2020 and 2022).…”

“…After people had experienced the virus for some time and felt the influence of it in other parts of their lives [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ], the ego network for COVID-19 in 2022 shows that COVID-related research expanded beyond anxiety , depression , and stress to include some of the more fundamental topics of Clinical Psychology for both men and women, such as eating disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder , and to fundamental topics found only for research in men (e.g., gay and bisexual men ) and to fundamental topics found only for research in women (e.g., pregnancy ). Further, the ego network for COVID-19 in 2022 ( Figure 6 ) shows a number of research topics that may have been exacerbated by the quarantines and lockdowns experienced in many countries around the world during the pandemic (e.g., alcohol use , substance use , intimate partner violence , loneliness , and physical activity ).…”

“…The WHO declared an end to the Public Health Emergency in May 2023 [ 2 ]. In addition to the hundreds of millions of cases of and millions of deaths from COVID-19 world-wide [ 3 ], the disease and measures to contain its spread had widespread effects on social, political, economic (e.g., labor markets and supply chains), and educational institutions in countries around the world [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]. The disease and measures to contain its spread also affected various psychological and physical behaviors (e.g., eating, sleeping, and exercise) of individuals around the world [ 13 , 14 ].…”