Cargando…

The impact of access to financial services on mitigating COVID-19 mortality globally

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected different social and demographic groups, deepening the negative health implications of social and economic inequalities and highlighting the importance of social determinants of health. Despite a deep literature on pandemic-related disparities, s...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Watkins, Todd A., Nguyen, Khue, Ali, Hamza, Gummakonda, Rishikesh, Pelman, Jacques, Taracena, Brianna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10022804/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36963020
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0001137
_version_ 1784908797715677184
author Watkins, Todd A.
Nguyen, Khue
Ali, Hamza
Gummakonda, Rishikesh
Pelman, Jacques
Taracena, Brianna
author_facet Watkins, Todd A.
Nguyen, Khue
Ali, Hamza
Gummakonda, Rishikesh
Pelman, Jacques
Taracena, Brianna
author_sort Watkins, Todd A.
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected different social and demographic groups, deepening the negative health implications of social and economic inequalities and highlighting the importance of social determinants of health. Despite a deep literature on pandemic-related disparities, specifically regarding social determinants and health outcomes, the influence of the accessibility of financial services on health outcomes during COVID-19 remains largely unexplored. Modeling (pre-omicron) COVID-19 mortality across 142 nations, we assess the impact of national-level usage and access to formal financial services. Two financial access indexes constructed through principal component analysis capture (1) usage of and access to formal financial tools and (2) reliance on alternative and informal financial tools. On average, nations with higher pre-pandemic use of and access to formal financial services had substantially lower population mortality risk from COVID-19, controlling for key population health, demographic, and socioeconomic covariates. The scale of effect is similar in magnitude—but opposite in direction—to major risk factors identified in previous literature, such as lung cancer, hypertension, and income inequality. Findings suggest that financial services deserve greater attention both in the public health literature related to COVID-19 and more broadly in policy discussions about fostering better public health overall.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10022804
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-100228042023-03-18 The impact of access to financial services on mitigating COVID-19 mortality globally Watkins, Todd A. Nguyen, Khue Ali, Hamza Gummakonda, Rishikesh Pelman, Jacques Taracena, Brianna PLOS Glob Public Health Research Article The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected different social and demographic groups, deepening the negative health implications of social and economic inequalities and highlighting the importance of social determinants of health. Despite a deep literature on pandemic-related disparities, specifically regarding social determinants and health outcomes, the influence of the accessibility of financial services on health outcomes during COVID-19 remains largely unexplored. Modeling (pre-omicron) COVID-19 mortality across 142 nations, we assess the impact of national-level usage and access to formal financial services. Two financial access indexes constructed through principal component analysis capture (1) usage of and access to formal financial tools and (2) reliance on alternative and informal financial tools. On average, nations with higher pre-pandemic use of and access to formal financial services had substantially lower population mortality risk from COVID-19, controlling for key population health, demographic, and socioeconomic covariates. The scale of effect is similar in magnitude—but opposite in direction—to major risk factors identified in previous literature, such as lung cancer, hypertension, and income inequality. Findings suggest that financial services deserve greater attention both in the public health literature related to COVID-19 and more broadly in policy discussions about fostering better public health overall. Public Library of Science 2023-03-17 /pmc/articles/PMC10022804/ /pubmed/36963020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0001137 Text en © 2023 Watkins et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Watkins, Todd A.
Nguyen, Khue
Ali, Hamza
Gummakonda, Rishikesh
Pelman, Jacques
Taracena, Brianna
The impact of access to financial services on mitigating COVID-19 mortality globally
title The impact of access to financial services on mitigating COVID-19 mortality globally
title_full The impact of access to financial services on mitigating COVID-19 mortality globally
title_fullStr The impact of access to financial services on mitigating COVID-19 mortality globally
title_full_unstemmed The impact of access to financial services on mitigating COVID-19 mortality globally
title_short The impact of access to financial services on mitigating COVID-19 mortality globally
title_sort impact of access to financial services on mitigating covid-19 mortality globally
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10022804/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36963020
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0001137
work_keys_str_mv AT watkinstodda theimpactofaccesstofinancialservicesonmitigatingcovid19mortalityglobally
AT nguyenkhue theimpactofaccesstofinancialservicesonmitigatingcovid19mortalityglobally
AT alihamza theimpactofaccesstofinancialservicesonmitigatingcovid19mortalityglobally
AT gummakondarishikesh theimpactofaccesstofinancialservicesonmitigatingcovid19mortalityglobally
AT pelmanjacques theimpactofaccesstofinancialservicesonmitigatingcovid19mortalityglobally
AT taracenabrianna theimpactofaccesstofinancialservicesonmitigatingcovid19mortalityglobally
AT watkinstodda impactofaccesstofinancialservicesonmitigatingcovid19mortalityglobally
AT nguyenkhue impactofaccesstofinancialservicesonmitigatingcovid19mortalityglobally
AT alihamza impactofaccesstofinancialservicesonmitigatingcovid19mortalityglobally
AT gummakondarishikesh impactofaccesstofinancialservicesonmitigatingcovid19mortalityglobally
AT pelmanjacques impactofaccesstofinancialservicesonmitigatingcovid19mortalityglobally
AT taracenabrianna impactofaccesstofinancialservicesonmitigatingcovid19mortalityglobally