ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Life-Course Epidemiology and Social Inequalities in Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1645667
This article is part of the Research TopicAffirmative Policies and Actions for Equity in Health Towards Vulnerable GroupsView all articles
Living During COVID-19: Qualitative Analysis of Experts by Experience UK University Associates' Socioeconomic Inequalities, Including Readiness Recommendations
Provisionally accepted
- University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
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A vulnerable group of people with disabilities and carers (Experts by Experience) wished for research during the COVID-19 pandemic to assist other people with disabilities in the future. Consideration of this vulnerable group seems to be limited in future policy pandemic readiness despite huge potential mortality. Literature reviewed critical public health theory through assessing health inequalities and health equity in relation to disability/chronic ill health. A sStandard qualitative thematic, and semi-quantitative methods distinguished socioeconomic health inequalities for people with earlier mental/psychosocial distress and other Experts by Experience-including people with physical, visual, self-identified hidden disabilities, and their carers. Environmental, community, and individual challenge were part of the overarching theme. Up to five sub-themes were: shielding, diminished quality of life, use of social media versus the digital divide, people with hidden disabilities, activism, celebrating lockdowns' ends, loss in stability of outlook, loneliness/isolation, coping strategies, developing new skills, re-evaluating lives because the world will change. Discussion of findings relied on four critical public health pillars; included were future recommendations for pandemic/emergency readiness.
Keywords: critical public health, Equity in health, socioeconomical inequalities in health, Disability, Experts by experience, COVID-19, Hidden disabilities, Vulnerable group
Received: 13 Jun 2025; Accepted: 05 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Rooney. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Joy M Rooney, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
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