Disabled at much higher risk of Covid death

Disabled people are far more likely to die from Covid-19 than the general population, according to official figures.

The figures were published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), based on deaths between 2nd March-15th May 2020. They show disabled women under 65 are more than 11.3 times likely to die and disabled men under 65 are 6.5 times more likely to die of Covid-19 than their peers.

The research used statistics from the 2011 census, to identify whether someone is   disabled or not, which means the figures are probably underestimated as ’disability tends to increase with age.’

Disabled Coronavirus deaths

The census examined disability as: ‘limited a little’ or ‘limited a lot’. With those ‘not limited at all’ considered not to
have a disability.

It found that the risk of death particularly from Covid-19 links with age. Allowing for this data showed that all disabled people regardless of age are at a greater risk of death from Covid-19 compared to non-disabled people.
 

According to the research: “Males whose day-to-day activities were ‘limited a lot’ were 2.5 times more likely to die, while those whose daily activities were ‘limited a little’ were 1.8 times more likely to die, compared with the risk of death involving COVID-19 among those who were not disabled.” The statistics for females were 3.2 and 1.9, respectively.

James Taylor, executive director of strategy, impact and social change at disability equality charity Scope, said: “The vastly higher mortality rate of disabled people is a damning result of disabled people being forgotten about and not adequately protected during this crisis.”

“This inequality cannot be allowed to continue. Making sure disabled people do not bear the brunt of the pandemic
needs to be a top priority for the government.”

Disabled people Coronavirus

The report shows that men in the most disabled category were almost three times as likely to die than
men who weren’t disabled. The situation with women in the most disabled category was even more worrying, with females more than four times as likely to die compared to females who were not disabled.

According to a more recent survey (Family Resource survey 2018-2019) it is thought that there are 11.6 million disabled people (21% of the population) in England and 0.8 million disabled people (25% of the population) in Wales.

There are many aspects to take into consideration of the increased chance of disabled people dying from Covid-19. The ONS analysis says: ‘Factors affecting the risk of infection are likely to include geographic location and population density, living arrangements, socio-economic profile and working conditions.’ Another factor includes the ability a person has to survive once infected by the Coronavirus.