Volume 27, Number 7—July 2021
Dispatch
Assessing Community Vulnerability over 3 Waves of COVID-19 Pandemic, Hong Kong, China
, Meihong Dong, Jiehu Yuan, Richard Fielding, Benjamin J. Cowling, Irene Oi Ling Wong, and Wendy Wing Tak Lam
Table 1
Domains and domain indictors for calculating community vulnerability index in the context of the coronavirus disease pandemic, Hong Kong*
| Domain | Descriptions of the indicators |
|---|---|
| Socioeconomic status† | |
| Poverty | Proportion of persons below poverty line‡ |
| Unemployment | Proportion of persons >15 years of age who are unemployed |
| Income | Median income per capita |
| Educational level |
Proportion persons >15 years of age having education level below high school |
| Household composition† | |
| Persons >65 years of age | Proportion of persons >65 years of age |
| Persons <14 years of age | Proportion of persons <14 years of age |
| Single-parent households | Proportion of single-parent households among all households |
| Elderly living alone |
Proportion of elderly (>65 years of age) living alone |
| Housing conditions† | |
| Household density | Mean number of persons per household |
| Area of accommodation |
Median floor area of accommodation per household |
| Healthcare system factors§ | |
| Hospital beds | Proportion of hospital beds per 100,000 persons |
| Intensive care unit (ICU) beds | Proportion of ICU beds per 100,000 persons |
| Hospital labor |
Proportion of hospital labor force (full-time staff employed by Hong Kong Hospital Authority) per 100,000 persons |
| Epidemiologic factors | |
| Population density¶ | Estimated persons per square kilometre |
| Obesity# | Proportion of persons with BMI ≥25 |
| Hypertension# | Proportion of persons with hypertension |
| Smoking# | Proportion of daily smokers |
| Persons employed in transportation sector† | Proportion of persons employed in transportation sector |
| Persons employed in accommodation and food catering sectors† | Proportion of persons employed in accommodation and food catering sectors |
| Working outside residency district† | Proportion of persons not working in the district of their residence |
| Entertainment venues** | Number of entertainment venues (e.g., bar, karaoke, wine, club house) |
| Non–Chinese ethnicities † | Proportion of persons with non–Chinese ethnicities |
*All statistics were calculated at the residential district level of Hong Kong. †Data from the 2016 Hong Kong population by-census data (https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/so459.jsp). ‡Monthly household income is below 50% of the median monthly household income in Hong Kong before any government interventions. §Data from the 2018–2019 Hospital Authority Annual Report, Hong Kong (https://www3.ha.org.hk/data/HAStatistics/StatisticalReport/2018-2019). ¶Data from the Hong Kong Statistical Reports: Land area, mid-year population and population density by District Council district, 2019 edition (https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp150.jsp?productCode = D5320189). #Data from the 2015 report of a major Family Project Cohort Study comprising ≈8,000 households in Hong Kong (https://familycohort.sph.hku.hk/en/knowledge_exchange.html). **Data from OpenRice (https://www.openrice.com/en/hongkong), the most popular restaurant review app, which provides the largest database of food venues, bars and other entertainment venues in Hong Kong.