Disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on socially vulnerable communities

The case of Jane and Finch in Toronto, Ontario

Bibliographic Data

ID22078632
AuthorsZahra Movahedi Nia (0000-0002-5528-638X, York University), Cheryl Prescod (Regent Park Community Health Centre), Michelle Westin, Michelle F Westin (0000-0001-9333-5835, Regent Park Community Health Centre), Patricia Perkins, Patricia K Perkins (York University), Mary Goitom (0000-0002-1175-8904, York University), Kesha Fevrier (0000-0002-4974-0363, Queen's University), Sylvia Bawa (0000-0002-0907-4204, York University), Jude Dzevela Kong (0000-0002-7557-5672, University of Toronto, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume13
Pages1448812-1448812
Publication date2025-06-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFrontiers in Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2296-2565 • E-ISSN: 2296-2565
PublisherFrontiers Media SA (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3389/fpubh.2025.1448812
PMID40567992
OpenAlexW4411204049
LanguageEN
References cited51

Objective This work aims to study the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Jane and Finch community, one of the socially vulnerable neighborhoods in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Ontario, Canada, in terms of morbidity, mortality, and healthcare services. Methodology A dataset provided by the Black Creek Community Health Centre (BCCHC), gathered from different health-related portals, covering various health statistics during COVID-19, namely, COVID-19 number of cases, hospitalizations, deaths, percentage of vaccination with one-, two-, and three-dose(s), Primary and Preventive Care (PPC) visits which include fecal and pap-smear cancer tests, and percentage of completed Imaging, Procedures, and Surgeries (IPS) which include the number of patients waiting for surgery were studied using statistical analysis. Underserved communities in the Peel, York, and City of Toronto regions were recognized using the Ontario Marginalized Index (ON-Marg). The Jane and Finch community was selected from the fifth quintile of the ON-Marg index and compared with the remaining locations (first to fourth ON-Marg quantiles) using Kruskal-Wallis, Mann–Whitney u, and t -tests. The Gini index was used to understand the inequality of the health parameters among the selected neighborhoods. Local Indicator of Spatial Association (LISA) was used to detect the neighborhoods with significantly higher numbers of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and mortalities. Results The Jane and Finch community had a significantly ( p < 0.0001) higher number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and mortalities. The significance and cluster analysis of LISA also extracted the Jane and Finch community as one of the hotspots with significantly higher COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death. The percentage of the third-dose vaccination was significantly lower for the Jane and Finch community ( p = 0.0004). The number of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic versus before that decreased significantly more for pop-smear tests ( p = 0.041) and surgery waitlists ( p = 0.037) for the Jane and Finch community. Conclusion As one of the most socially vulnerable communities of GTA, the Jane and Finch community has endured a heavier burden of the disease during the COVID-19 pandemic. This work aims to help the Jane and Finch community recover faster by shedding light on health areas in which it has suffered more from the COVID-19 outcomes

2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Biology · Disease · Finch · Geography · Outbreak · Pandemic · Political science · COVID-19 and healthcare impacts · COVID-19 epidemiological studies · Health disparities and outcomes · Medicine · Ecology · Gerontology · Virology

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