4.K. Workshop: What is going on? New inequalities emerging from the COVID-19 syndemic
Authors:   Organised by: NIJZ (Slovenia), WHO/Europe, EuroHealthNet,   Chair persons: Mojca Gabrijelčič Blenkus (Slovenia), Isabel Yordi (Greece)
Published: October 2021

COVID-19 pandemic interacts with the pandemic of chronic non-communicable diseases and is exacerbated in different social and societal contexts through existing health inequalities - resulting in a syndemic. The socio-economically weakest groups of the population have been most affected (Bambra, 2020, Horton, 2020). In 2020, most activities were focused on controlling the epidemic through a biomedical approach, and only in the second half of the year, with the onset of the second wave, did the understanding that we are dealing with a syndemic, emerge in public health, societal and lately political discourse at the national and EU levels. There is increasing indirect damage to public health due to the loss of jobs and income, the long-term closure of certain activities, difficult access to health systems for those with non-COVID-19 health problems, and general uncertainty about the present and future. Different dimensions of syndemic inequalities (e.g. mental health, cognitive decline, lifestyles, gender, intergenerational) are the main focus of the workshop, including inequalities that were traditionally perceived in public health, as well as new emerging inequalities. In Slovenia we are conducting a study on the impact of the syndemic on people's lives (SI-PANDA 2020/2021), to (1) better understand human behaviour in COVID-19 pandemic and (2) to identify and address the impact of the governmental decisions, pandemic measures and recommendations.

The workshop will aim to:

Showcase the value of timely measurement and surveying of the COVID-19 syndemic's influences on society; Increase participants' understanding and awareness of the opportunities and challenges associated with different types of inequalities linked to COVID-19; Increase awareness of public health professionals on the importance of overcoming the difference between the biomedical approach and psychosocial paradigms;

The workshop will offer an opportunity to:

Present some of the outputs of the PANDA research and outline the influences of COVID-19 on lifestyle, mental health and cognitive changes Inform participants about the benefits of the comprehensive national approach in measuring COVID-19 syndemic consequences, embedded in a broader internationally comparative WHO measurement framework; Explore traditional inequalities with new dimensions, such as gender inequalities, newly emerging economic vulnerabilities and transformational inequalities, such as intergenerational inequality. Identify possible syndemic outcome measures at the national and EU levels, while identifying gaps between employing biomedical versus psychosocial approach in controlling conditions.

Key messages

Present new evidence on a wide range of inequalities emerging from the COVID-19 syndemic and its approach to mitigate it. Showcase an example from Slovenia (within the WHO internationally harmonized approach) of timely measuring the right data to inform a biomedical response as well as psychosocial measures.