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Am I Paid Well Enough to Be Diagnosed with COVID-19? Determinants of Gender Differences in Infection Detection Rate among Polish Working Age Population

In comparison to Western European countries, Poland had a relatively lower percentage of its population diagnosed with COVID-19. Moreover, even the detected cases were not showing any pattern consistent with the expected chance of infection and were at best only remotely related to the severity of t...

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Autores principales: Walkowiak, Marcin Piotr, Walkowiak, Dariusz
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9147074/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35629215
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jpm12050793
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author Walkowiak, Marcin Piotr
Walkowiak, Dariusz
author_facet Walkowiak, Marcin Piotr
Walkowiak, Dariusz
author_sort Walkowiak, Marcin Piotr
collection PubMed
description In comparison to Western European countries, Poland had a relatively lower percentage of its population diagnosed with COVID-19. Moreover, even the detected cases were not showing any pattern consistent with the expected chance of infection and were at best only remotely related to the severity of the illness that is known to increase with age. Instead, the crucial factor in detecting illness was whether the individual was likely to receive adequate compensation for being confined to their home, with employed women being the most likely to be diagnosed. In every Polish sub-region (powiat), in the 25–54 age group, the share of men diagnosed with COVID-19 was lower than that of women, with the missing share ranging from 8% to 36%. Based on the regression model (adjusted R² = 43.9%), there were relevant non-economic factors such as education, vaccination rate and increasing median age that were reducing this gap. However, the key factors, such as the share of population entitled to sick leave derived from employment rate, or the share of the self-employed population who were unlikely to receive adequate compensation, were related to economic incentives. It would seem that gender differences, in reaction to economic stimuli, widened the discrepancies, as the same factors were affecting women as well. While the testing rates in Poland, the lowest of all the EU countries, clearly played a role in creating the environment in which testing was perceived by the general population as somewhat optional, Polish citizens themselves through their actions aggravated the problem further, creating the impression of people receiving inadequate or no compensation for their time of self-isolation. In spite of well-intentioned government efforts to extend compensation to at least some groups, a significant share of the population clearly behaved as if they feared self-isolation more than the actual virus. Therefore, for both compliance and fairness purposes, both the severity of restrictions and the availability of compensation should be reconsidered.
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spelling pubmed-91470742022-05-29 Am I Paid Well Enough to Be Diagnosed with COVID-19? Determinants of Gender Differences in Infection Detection Rate among Polish Working Age Population Walkowiak, Marcin Piotr Walkowiak, Dariusz J Pers Med Article In comparison to Western European countries, Poland had a relatively lower percentage of its population diagnosed with COVID-19. Moreover, even the detected cases were not showing any pattern consistent with the expected chance of infection and were at best only remotely related to the severity of the illness that is known to increase with age. Instead, the crucial factor in detecting illness was whether the individual was likely to receive adequate compensation for being confined to their home, with employed women being the most likely to be diagnosed. In every Polish sub-region (powiat), in the 25–54 age group, the share of men diagnosed with COVID-19 was lower than that of women, with the missing share ranging from 8% to 36%. Based on the regression model (adjusted R² = 43.9%), there were relevant non-economic factors such as education, vaccination rate and increasing median age that were reducing this gap. However, the key factors, such as the share of population entitled to sick leave derived from employment rate, or the share of the self-employed population who were unlikely to receive adequate compensation, were related to economic incentives. It would seem that gender differences, in reaction to economic stimuli, widened the discrepancies, as the same factors were affecting women as well. While the testing rates in Poland, the lowest of all the EU countries, clearly played a role in creating the environment in which testing was perceived by the general population as somewhat optional, Polish citizens themselves through their actions aggravated the problem further, creating the impression of people receiving inadequate or no compensation for their time of self-isolation. In spite of well-intentioned government efforts to extend compensation to at least some groups, a significant share of the population clearly behaved as if they feared self-isolation more than the actual virus. Therefore, for both compliance and fairness purposes, both the severity of restrictions and the availability of compensation should be reconsidered. MDPI 2022-05-14 /pmc/articles/PMC9147074/ /pubmed/35629215 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jpm12050793 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Walkowiak, Marcin Piotr
Walkowiak, Dariusz
Am I Paid Well Enough to Be Diagnosed with COVID-19? Determinants of Gender Differences in Infection Detection Rate among Polish Working Age Population
title Am I Paid Well Enough to Be Diagnosed with COVID-19? Determinants of Gender Differences in Infection Detection Rate among Polish Working Age Population
title_full Am I Paid Well Enough to Be Diagnosed with COVID-19? Determinants of Gender Differences in Infection Detection Rate among Polish Working Age Population
title_fullStr Am I Paid Well Enough to Be Diagnosed with COVID-19? Determinants of Gender Differences in Infection Detection Rate among Polish Working Age Population
title_full_unstemmed Am I Paid Well Enough to Be Diagnosed with COVID-19? Determinants of Gender Differences in Infection Detection Rate among Polish Working Age Population
title_short Am I Paid Well Enough to Be Diagnosed with COVID-19? Determinants of Gender Differences in Infection Detection Rate among Polish Working Age Population
title_sort am i paid well enough to be diagnosed with covid-19? determinants of gender differences in infection detection rate among polish working age population
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9147074/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35629215
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jpm12050793
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