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Abstract：
Early diagnosis is important to control COVID-19 outbreaks. This study aimed to assess how individual and area socioeconomic position and geographical accessibility to healthcare services were associated with the time to diagnosis among symptomatic COVID-19 patients in Hong Kong. Multivariable generalized linear regression was used to estimate the associations while adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics and case classification. This study found living in public rental housing and living in an area with low education were associated with longer time to diagnosis in the first wave of infections. Specifically, the risk of delayed diagnosis for public rental housing residents was mitigated by the higher density of public clinics/hospitals but was slightly increased by the higher density of private medical practitioners nearby. No such relations were found in the second wave of infections when the surveillance measures were enhanced. Given the grave impact of pandemics around the world, our findings call on taking inequalities into account when public health policies are being devised.
摘要：
早期诊断对控制COVID-19疫情很重要。这项研究旨在评估香港有症状的COVID-19患者的个人和地区社会经济地位和获得医疗服务的地理可及性与诊断时间的关系。多变量广义线性回归用于估计关联，同时调整社会人口统计学特征和病例分类。这项研究发现，在第一波感染中，居住在公共租赁住房和教育程度低的地区与诊断时间更长有关。具体来说,公共诊所/医院的高密度减轻了公共租赁住房居民延迟诊断的风险，但附近私人医生的高密度略有增加。加强监测措施后，在第二波感染中未发现这种关系。鉴于世界各地流行病的严重影响，我们的研究结果呼吁在制定公共卫生政策时考虑不平等.
