Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic Of Iran

en Short and Long-term Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Health Equity: A Comprehensive Review COVID 19 Review Article Review Article     Background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human life has led to profound consequences in almost all societies worldwide, and this includes its significant impact on all aspects of health. Health equity has been among the main challenges in any healthcare system. However, with the COVID-19 crisis worsening health inequalities, the need to prioritize health equity in upstream national and international plans must receive scholarly attention. Therefore, this paper reports the findings of a review of the current synthesized evidence about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health equity.    Methods: This is a comprehensive review in which we retrieved relevant studies during the period starting from 12/01/2019 to 01/15/2021 are retrieved from various databases. The PRISMA flow diagram and a narrative approach are used for synthesizing the evidence.    Results: We initially retrieved 1173 studies, and after a primary quality appraisal process, 40 studies entered the final phase of analysis. The included studies were categorized into five main outcome variables: Accessibility (95%), Utilization (65.8%), Financial protection: 15 (36.5%), Poverty (31.7%), and Racism (21.9%)    Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic has been the most devastating global challenge in recent history. While the COVID-19 crisis is still unfolding, its multidimensional adverse effects are yet to be revealed. Nevertheless, some people, e.g., the elderly, minorities, as well as marginalized and poor persons, have suffered the COVID-19 consequences more than others. In line with the whole government/whole society approach, we advocate that governments need to strengthen their special efforts to reduce the extra burden of the pandemic on the most vulnerable populations.   COVID-19 pandemic, Health Care Delivery, Health Equity, Health Inequality, Poverty and COVID-19, Racism and COVID-19, Social Determinants of Health (SDH), Vulnerable Populations 1396 1405 http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-7242-6&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Efat Mohamadi 200319475328460075797 200319475328460075797 No Health Equity Research Center (HERC), Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), & National Center for Health Insurance Research, Health Insurance Organization, Tehran, Iran Alireza Olyaeemanesh arolyaee@gmail.com 200319475328460075798 200319475328460075798 Yes Health Equity Research Center (HERC), & National Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran Amirhossein Takian takian@tums.ac.ir 200319475328460075799 200319475328460075799 No Health Equity Research Center (HERC), & Department of Health Management, Policy, and Economics, School of Public Health, & Department of Global Health and Public Policy, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), & National Center for Health Insurance Research, Health Insurance Organization, Tehran, Iran Fatemeh Yaftian takian@tums.ac.ir 200319475328460075800 200319475328460075800 No Health Equity Research Center (HERC), Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran Mohammad Mehdi Kiani takian@tums.ac.ir 200319475328460075801 200319475328460075801 No Health Equity Research Center (HERC), Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), & Department of Health Management, Policy, and Economics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran Bagher Larijani emrc@tums.ac.ir 200319475328460075802 200319475328460075802 No 6. Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinical Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Tehran, Iran