A large seven-country study has shed light on how serious people find the COVID-19 pandemic compared to other major public health problems. The results were surprising and provide guidance to healthcare providers as well as policymakers. 

Researchers from seven EfD centers plus the EfD Global Hub have conducted an extensive survey, led by Professors Richard Carson, Dale Whittington, and Michael Hanemann. The first results were published in 2023: Perceptions of the seriousness of major public health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic in seven middle-income countries. 

Respiratory illnesses ranked more serious 

The respondents ranked the seriousness of the seven health problems (alcoholism and drug use, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, lung cancer and respiratory diseases caused by air pollution and smoking, and water-borne diseases like diarrhea). 

In most countries, respiratory illnesses were seen as a more serious problem than COVID-19. In Africa, people felt that alcoholism and drug use were also more se

rious than COVID-19. Surprisingly, in six of the seven countries, respondents ranked waterborne diseases as the least serious health problem. 

Don’t crowd out ordinary healthcare 

These findings show that people still care about the health problems they were facing before the pandemic. 

“An important lesson for health ministries is to not get too carried away by what media focuses on a particular point in time. It is important to avoid crowding out ordinary health services,” says Dale Whittington. 

“It’s also clear that perceptions of health problems can differ considerably within and across countries and population segments.”

EfD Director Gunnar Köhlin notes that a study like this provides unique insights. 

“It can put novel phenomena, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, into a perspective of the more persistent challenges that countries in the Global South face,” he says.