Background: The objective of this paper is to analyze social inequalities in COVID-19 incidence, stratified by age, sex, geographical area, and income in Barcelona during the first two waves of the pandemic. Methods: We collected data on COVID-19 cases confirmed by laboratory tests during the first two waves of the pandemic (1 March to 15 July and 16 July to 30 November, 2020) in Barcelona. For each wave and sex, we calculated smooth cumulative incidence by census tract using a hierarchical Bayesian model. We analyzed income inequalities in the incidence of COVID-19, categorizing the census tracts into quintiles based on the income indicator. Results: During the two waves, women showed higher COVID-19 cumulative incidence under 64 years, while the trend was reversed after that threshold. The incidence of the disease was higher in some poor neighborhoods. The risk ratio (RR) increased in the poorest groups compared to the richest ones, mainly in the second wave, with RR being 1.67 (95% Credible Interval-CI-: 1.41–1.96) in the fifth quintile income group for men and 1.71 (95% CI: 1.44–1.99) for women. Conclusion: Our results indicate the existence of inequalities in the incidence of COVID-19 in an urban area of Southern Europe.

The objective of this study was to assess trends in cancer mortality by educational level in Barcelona from 1992 to 2003.

Background: The aim of the present study was to describe the use of prescribed and non prescribed medicines in a non-institutionalised population older than 15 years of an urban area during the year 2000, in terms of age and gender, social class, employment status and type of Primary Health Care.Methods: Cross-sectional study. Information came from the 2000 Barcelona Health Interview Survey. The indicators used were the prevalence of use of prescribed and non-prescribed medicines in the two weeks prior to the interview. Descriptive analyses, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were carried out.Results: More women than men took medicines (75.8%vs. 60% respectively). The prevalence of use of prescribed medicines increased with age while the prevalence of non-prescribed use decreased. These age differences are smaller among those with poor perceived health. In terms of social class, a higher percentage of men with good health in the more advantaged classes took non-prescribed medicines compared with disadvantaged classes (38.7% vs 31.8%). In contrast, among the group with poor health, more people from the more advantaged classes took prescribed medicines, compared with disadvantaged classes (51.4% vs 33.3%). A higher proportion of people who were either retired, unemployed or students, with good health, used prescribed medicines.Conclusion: This study shows that beside health needs, there are social determinants affecting medicine consumption in the city of Barcelona.

Intra-urban inequalities in mortality have been infrequently analysed in European contexts. The aim of the present study was to analyse patterns of cancer mortality and their relationship with socioeconomic deprivation in small areas in 11 Spanish cities.

The Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCAT) is an interesting set of tools for primary care research. A very short version could inform policy makers about consumer experiences with primary care (PC) through health surveys. This work aimed to investigate the validity and reliability of a selection of items from the child short edition (CS) of the PCAT.

To obtain versions of the Primary Care Assessment Tools (PCAT)-Facility version to evaluate primary care (PC) in the Spanish context, and to analyze its feasibility, reliability and validity. Cultural adaptation was performed through the use of forward and backward translations into Spanish and Catalan, observations and opinions of a panel of experts, and cognitive interviews with target users (PC team managers). A pilot phase was carried out in a sample of 130 managers of PC teams in Catalonia. A post-test questionnaire was sent 4-5 months later to all 194 managers of PC teams in the Barcelona health region. Analysis of metric properties included: 1) description of items and verification of Likert assumptions, since domain scores are obtained by summing item scores; 2) reliability analysis (Cronbach's alpha coefficient, Pearson's correlation coefficient, test-retest analysis); and 3) validity analysis (expert panel, cognitive interviews, and convergent and discriminant validity). Substantial adaptation was required for the accessory section of the questionnaire, but less was required in PC domain measurements. Items were added to the comprehensiveness domain to reflect services usually available in Spain. The lowest Cronbach's alpha scores were found for Access (0.62) and Coordination (0.59 and 0.65), while values were >0.70 for the remaining domains. The Spanish version of the PCAT-Facility questionnaire is now available and shows adequate reliability and validity. The Spanish PCAT version will facilitate national and international comparisons of PC and analysis of the determinants of quality of service provision.