Long‐Term Limiting Illness in the United Kingdom: Before and After the Covid Lockdown

TL;DR

This study examines how long-term illness in the UK changed between 2019 and 2022, focusing on differences across social classes before and after the pandemic.

Contribution

The paper reveals that the propensity for long-term illness increased in 2022 compared to 2019, with persistent health inequalities across occupational classes.

Findings

Managerial/Professional classes had a higher predicted probability of not having long-term illness in both 2019 and 2022.

The predicted probability of having a long-term illness increased in 2022 compared to 2019 for the overall population and subgroups.

Health inequalities linked to occupational class remained significant before and after the pandemic.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the evolution of LTLI in the UK between the pre‐ and post‐Covid years of, respectively, 2019 and 2022 paying attention to differences in the propensity to LTLI between different subgroups of the population in each of the two years and then examining whether the propensity to LTLI changed between the years, both in respect of overall change and in respect of the separate population subgroups. This was achieved using UK Labour Force Survey data for 2019 and 2022. In terms of the social gradient to health, persons in the Managerial/Professional classes had a significantly higher PP (predicted probability) of N‐LTI (i.e., of not having a long‐term illness) than persons either in the Routine non‐Manual or Routine Manual classes and also had a significantly lower PP of LTLI‐lot (i.e., of having a long‐term illness which limited activity by a lot) than persons either in the Intermediate or in the Routine Manual or Routine non‐Manual classes. This was true in both 2019 and 2022. In other words, there was significant inequality in the PP of LTLI associated with the occupational classes. In terms of changes in the propensity to LTLI, the PP of having a long‐term illness—regardless of whether it was limiting or not ‐ was significantly higher in 2022 than it was in 2019 both for the overall population and for its subgroups.

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