Publication:

Social and micro-economic consequences of COVID-19 pandemic among urban slum population in Chandigarh- an analytical cross-sectional study

Background Corona virus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disproportionately affected marginalized communities because of the loss of livelihood and lack of food, shelter, health, and basic necessities. This study assessed the socio-demographic characteristics, social and micro-economic aspect of health determinants during COVID-19 pandemic among patients attending urban health training centre (UHTC) in Indira Colony, Chandigarh.

Methods An analytical cross-sectional study conducted in urban health training centre, Indira colony. All patients aged ≥18 years attended UHTC OPD were recruited till the sample size (n=110) was achieved. By considering 95% level of significance, Kruskal Wallis test and McNemar test were applied to determine the association between different variables.

Results The mean age of the participants were 40 years and nearly 40% belong to the age category less than 30 years. In pre-COVID-19, only 5% of the participants were found to have weaker relationship with family members, however, during COVID-19 pandemic this had increased to nearly 19%. The unemployment status in pre-COVID-19 and during COVID-19 pandemic was found to be 8% and 65% respectively, which is statistically significant.

Conclusions The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the social and micro-economic status of the people living in the slum area due to closure of major economic activities.