Coronavirus pandemic in the Nordic countries : health policy and economy trade-off
Abstract: 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 approach...
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ftunivantwerpen:c:irua:190039 2023-12-31T10:08:16+01:00 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 https://hdl.handle.net/10067/1900390151162165141 https://repository.uantwerpen.be/docstore/d:irua:13837 eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.7189/JOGH.12.05017 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/isi/000843324800001 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess 2047-2978 Journal of Global Health Human medicine info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2022 ftunivantwerpen https://doi.org/10.7189/JOGH.12.05017 2023-12-06T23:24:33Z Abstract: 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). Den-mark 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland IRUA - Institutional Repository van de Universiteit Antwerpen Journal of Global Health 12 |
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Open Polar |
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IRUA - Institutional Repository van de Universiteit Antwerpen |
op_collection_id |
ftunivantwerpen |
language |
English |
topic |
Human medicine |
spellingShingle |
Human medicine 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 |
topic_facet |
Human medicine |
description |
Abstract: 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). Den-mark 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 |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
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 |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/10067/1900390151162165141 https://repository.uantwerpen.be/docstore/d:irua:13837 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
2047-2978 Journal of Global Health |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.7189/JOGH.12.05017 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/isi/000843324800001 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7189/JOGH.12.05017 |
container_title |
Journal of Global Health |
container_volume |
12 |
_version_ |
1786840925250519040 |