Social determinants of health in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic: strengths and limitations of emergency responses

Abstract

Abstract Economic crises often expose the most vulnerable to higher health risks and tend to exacerbate existing inequalities. The Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) framework illustrates many layers of inequalities that would affect outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic. The impacts of emergency policy responses considering the SDoH framework are important for all sectors in policymaking. However, its assessment in Global South countries is limited, due to high informality rates and data availability. We address this gap using a unique dataset that allows for the analysis of occupational categories before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, incorporating the emergency assistance provided in 2020. Results show that, although labor earnings fell 4% for the self-employed at each death from COVID-19, increasing unemployment and inactivity among the typically most vulnerable, those effects were offset by emergency policies, reducing poverty. Groups often considered less vulnerable, such as formal employees, had an increase. The policy responses to this shock served then as a leveler of previous SDoH, despite ignoring the health-risk gradient there is along the income distribution. A poverty rebound that ensued after the sudden discontinuation of those policies is a lesson for future crises, and on how SDoH inequalities should be addressed.