Wong, Rosa S;
Tung, Keith TS;
Rao, Nirmala;
Chan, Ko Ling;
Fu, King-Wa;
Yam, Jason C;
Tso, Winnie WY;
... Ip, Patrick; + view all
(2022)
Using Latent Class Analyses to Examine Health Disparities among Young Children in Socially Disadvantaged Families during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
, 19
(13)
, Article 7893. 10.3390/ijerph19137893.
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Abstract
Rising income inequality is strongly linked to health disparities, particularly in regions where uneven distribution of wealth and income has long been a concern. Despite emerging evidence of COVID-19-related health inequalities for adults, limited evidence is available for children and their parents. This study aimed to explore subtypes of families of preschoolers living in the disadvantaged neighborhoods of Hong Kong based on patterns of family hardship and to compare their patterns of parenting behavior, lifestyle practices, and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from 1338 preschoolers and their parents during March to June 2020. Latent class analysis was performed based on 11 socioeconomic and disease indicators. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to examine associations between identified classes and variables of interest during the COVID-19 pandemic. Four classes of family hardship were identified. Class 1 (45.7%) had the lowest disease and financial burden. Class 2 (14.0%) had the highest financial burden. Class 3 (5.9%) had the highest disease burden. Class 4 (34.5%) had low family income but did not receive government welfare assistance. Class 1 (low hardship) had lower risks of child maltreatment and adjustment problems than Class 2 (poverty) and Class 3 (poor health). However, children in Class 1 (low hardship) had higher odds of suffering psychological aggression and poorer physical wellbeing than those in Class 4 (low income), even after adjusting for child age and gender. The findings emphasize the need to adopt flexible intervention strategies in the time of large disease outbreak to address diverse problems and concerns among socially disadvantaged families.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Using Latent Class Analyses to Examine Health Disparities among Young Children in Socially Disadvantaged Families during the COVID-19 Pandemic |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3390/ijerph19137893 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19137893 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). |
| Keywords: | COVID-19; preschooler; health disparity; latent class analysis; family hardship |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > UCL School of Pharmacy > Practice and Policy UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > UCL School of Pharmacy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10151813 |
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