COVID-19 home office measures: a longitudinal study comparing migrants and non-migrants in Norway

Abstract Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, some preventive measures can have been especially difficult to follow for some migrant groups. These difficulties may have contributed to their overrepresentation in COVID-19 statistics. This study compares self-perceived difficulty and fatigue in following home office measures over time between migrants and non-migrants in Norway. Methods We longitudinally analysed data collected at three time points (2020, 2021, 2022) for 25,423 participants of the Bergen in Change study. Among them, 511 (2%) were migrants from Asia, Africa, or Latin America (AAA), and 1,257 (5%) migrants from other regions (non-AAA). Participants reported (yes/no), whether they found it difficult to follow home office measures during the pandemic. We conducted descriptive statistics and multivariable regression presenting incidence rate ratios (aIRR) adjusted for socioeconomic factors, including type of work, with 95% confidence intervals. Results At baseline, non-AAA migrants reported a 20% higher difficulty following home office measures than non-migrants (aIRR 1.20 [1.06; 1.36]), while AAA migrants showed no significant differences. Overall, difficulty following this measure increased by 16% from 2020 to 2021 (aIRR 1.16, [1.10; 1.21] but decreased by 10% from 2020 to 2022 (aIRR 0.90, [0.85; 0.97]). Changes from 2020 to 2022 were similar among migrants and non-migrants. However, self-reported difficulties decreased for migrants from 2020 to 2021, so that the disparities between migrants and non-migrants narrowed significantly, by 28% (aIRR 0.72, [0.51; 1.00] for AAA migrants and by 26% (aIRR 0.74, [0.60; 0.89]) for non-AAA migrants. Conclusions Non-AAA migrants reported greater difficulty with home office measures than non-migrants at baseline, but this gap, along with disparities for AAA migrants, narrowed from 2020 to 2021. These findings highlight health disparities, and the challenges specific migrant groups face in adhering to pandemic policies. Key messages • Migrants, particularly from non-AAA regions, initially reported greater difficulties following home office measures than non-migrants, but disparities between them narrowed from 2020 to 2021. • Understanding COVID-19’s impact on different migrant groups is essential for tailoring healthcare interventions that address disparities and improve migrant health outcomes.