Social Group Differences in the Exposure Risk of COVID-19: A Case Study in Beijing, China

Abstract

Taking Beijing as a case, this paper conducted a survey to collect the characteristics of residents’ daily activities, including the mode of frequency and duration of travel, the type and environment of activities, and the duration and frequency of activities. We calculated the COVID-19 exposure risk of residents in different activities based on the exposure risk formula; the influencing factors of residents’ exposure risk were analyzed by regression analysis. The variance of residents’ COVID-19 exposure risk was calculated by coefficient of variation. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) There are differences in activity types of COVID-19 exposure risk, which are survival activity, daily activity and leisure activity from high to low. (2) There are differences in populations of COVID-19 exposure risk. Education level, occupation and income are the main factors affecting residents’ COVID-19 exposure risk. (3) There is internal inequity in the risk of COVID-19 exposure. The exposure risk was higher on work days than on rest days. Health inequities at work are highest on both work days and rest days. Among the different population characteristics, male, 31–40 years old, married, with a high school education, income level of 20,001–25,000 yuan, with a non-local rural hukou, rental housing, farmers, three generations or more living together have a greater degree of COVID-19 exposure risk.