Coronavirus pandemic in the Nordic countries: Health policy and economy trade-off
BACKGROUND: Countries making up the Nordic region – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden – have minimal socioeconomic, cultural, and geographical differences between them, allowing for a fair comparative analysis of the health policy and economy trade-off in their national approaches toward...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9356530 2023-05-15T16:48:47+02:00 Coronavirus pandemic in the Nordic countries: Health policy and economy trade-off Irfan, Furqan B Minetti, Raoul Telford, Ben Ahmed, Fahad S Syed, Ayesha Y Hollon, Nick Brauman, Seth C Cunningham, William Awad, Mohamed E Saleh, Khaled J Waljee, Akbar K Brusselaers, Nele 2022-08-08 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9356530/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35932219 https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05017 en eng International Society of Global Health http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9356530/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35932219 http://dx.doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05017 Copyright © 2022 by the Journal of Global Health. All rights reserved. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. CC-BY J Glob Health Research Theme 1: COVID-19 Pandemic Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05017 2022-08-21T00:33:28Z BACKGROUND: Countries making up the Nordic region – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden – have minimal socioeconomic, cultural, and geographical differences between them, allowing for a fair comparative analysis of the health policy and economy trade-off in their national approaches towards mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This study utilized publicly available COVID-19 data of the Nordic countries from January 2020 to January 3, 2021. COVID-19 epidemiology, public health and health policy, health system capacity, and macroeconomic data were analysed for each Nordic country. Joinpoint regression analysis was performed to identify changes in temporal trends using average monthly percent change (AMPC) and average weekly percent change (AWPC). RESULTS: Sweden’s health policy, being by far the most relaxed response to COVID-19, was found to have the largest COVID-19 incidence and mortality, and the highest AWPC increases for both indicators (13.5, 95% CI = 5.6, 22.0, P < 0.001; 6.3, 95% CI = 3.5, 9.1, P < 0.001). Denmark had the highest number of COVID-19 tests per capita, consistent with their approach of increased testing as a preventive strategy for disease transmission. Iceland had the second-highest number of tests per capita due to their mass-testing, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation response. Only Norway had a significant increase in unemployment (AMPC = 2.8%, 95% CI = 0.7-4.9, P < 0.009) while the percentage change in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was insignificant for all countries. CONCLUSIONS: There was no trade-off between public health policy and economy during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Nordic region. Sweden’s relaxed and delayed COVID-19 health policy response did not benefit the economy in the short term, while leading to disproportionate COVID-19 hospitalizations and mortality. Text Iceland PubMed Central (PMC) Norway Journal of Global Health 12 |
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Research Theme 1: COVID-19 Pandemic |
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Research Theme 1: COVID-19 Pandemic Irfan, Furqan B Minetti, Raoul Telford, Ben Ahmed, Fahad S Syed, Ayesha Y Hollon, Nick Brauman, Seth C Cunningham, William Awad, Mohamed E Saleh, Khaled J Waljee, Akbar K Brusselaers, Nele Coronavirus pandemic in the Nordic countries: Health policy and economy trade-off |
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Research Theme 1: COVID-19 Pandemic |
description |
BACKGROUND: Countries making up the Nordic region – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden – have minimal socioeconomic, cultural, and geographical differences between them, allowing for a fair comparative analysis of the health policy and economy trade-off in their national approaches towards mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This study utilized publicly available COVID-19 data of the Nordic countries from January 2020 to January 3, 2021. COVID-19 epidemiology, public health and health policy, health system capacity, and macroeconomic data were analysed for each Nordic country. Joinpoint regression analysis was performed to identify changes in temporal trends using average monthly percent change (AMPC) and average weekly percent change (AWPC). RESULTS: Sweden’s health policy, being by far the most relaxed response to COVID-19, was found to have the largest COVID-19 incidence and mortality, and the highest AWPC increases for both indicators (13.5, 95% CI = 5.6, 22.0, P < 0.001; 6.3, 95% CI = 3.5, 9.1, P < 0.001). Denmark had the highest number of COVID-19 tests per capita, consistent with their approach of increased testing as a preventive strategy for disease transmission. Iceland had the second-highest number of tests per capita due to their mass-testing, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation response. Only Norway had a significant increase in unemployment (AMPC = 2.8%, 95% CI = 0.7-4.9, P < 0.009) while the percentage change in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was insignificant for all countries. CONCLUSIONS: There was no trade-off between public health policy and economy during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Nordic region. Sweden’s relaxed and delayed COVID-19 health policy response did not benefit the economy in the short term, while leading to disproportionate COVID-19 hospitalizations and mortality. |
format |
Text |
author |
Irfan, Furqan B Minetti, Raoul Telford, Ben Ahmed, Fahad S Syed, Ayesha Y Hollon, Nick Brauman, Seth C Cunningham, William Awad, Mohamed E Saleh, Khaled J Waljee, Akbar K Brusselaers, Nele |
author_facet |
Irfan, Furqan B Minetti, Raoul Telford, Ben Ahmed, Fahad S Syed, Ayesha Y Hollon, Nick Brauman, Seth C Cunningham, William Awad, Mohamed E Saleh, Khaled J Waljee, Akbar K Brusselaers, Nele |
author_sort |
Irfan, Furqan B |
title |
Coronavirus pandemic in the Nordic countries: Health policy and economy trade-off |
title_short |
Coronavirus pandemic in the Nordic countries: Health policy and economy trade-off |
title_full |
Coronavirus pandemic in the Nordic countries: Health policy and economy trade-off |
title_fullStr |
Coronavirus pandemic in the Nordic countries: Health policy and economy trade-off |
title_full_unstemmed |
Coronavirus pandemic in the Nordic countries: Health policy and economy trade-off |
title_sort |
coronavirus pandemic in the nordic countries: health policy and economy trade-off |
publisher |
International Society of Global Health |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9356530/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35932219 https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05017 |
geographic |
Norway |
geographic_facet |
Norway |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
J Glob Health |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9356530/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35932219 http://dx.doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05017 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2022 by the Journal of Global Health. All rights reserved. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.12.05017 |
container_title |
Journal of Global Health |
container_volume |
12 |
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1766038871523459072 |