RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Sociodemographic determinants of intraurban variations in COVID-19 incidence: the case of Barcelona JF Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health JO J Epidemiol Community Health FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd SP jech-2020-216325 DO 10.1136/jech-2020-216325 A1 Antonio López-Gay A1 Jeroen Spijker A1 Helen V S Cole A1 Antonio G Marques A1 Margarita Triguero-Mas A1 Isabelle Anguelovski A1 Marc Marí-Dell'Olmo A1 Juan A Módenes A1 Dolores Álamo-Junquera A1 Fernando López-Gallego A1 Carme Borrell YR 2021 UL http://jech.bmj.com/content/early/2021/06/21/jech-2020-216325.abstract AB Background Intraurban sociodemographic risk factors for COVID-19 have yet to be fully understood. We investigated the relationship between COVID-19 incidence and sociodemographic factors in Barcelona at a fine-grained geography.Methods This cross-sectional ecological study is based on 10 550 confirmed cases of COVID-19 registered during the first wave in the municipality of Barcelona (population 1.64 million). We considered 16 variables on the demographic structure, urban density, household conditions, socioeconomic status, mobility and health characteristics for 76 geographical units of analysis (neighbourhoods), using a lasso analysis to identify the most relevant variables. We then fitted a multivariate Quasi-Poisson model that explained the COVID-19 incidence by neighbourhood in relation to these variables.Results Neighbourhoods with: (1) greater population density, (2) an aged population structure, (3) a high presence of nursing homes, (4) high proportions of individuals who left their residential area during lockdown and/or (5) working in health-related occupations were more likely to register a higher number of cases of COVID-19. Conversely, COVID-19 incidence was negatively associated with (6) percentage of residents with post-secondary education and (7) population born in countries with a high Human Development Index.Conclusion Like other historical pandemics, the incidence of COVID-19 is associated with neighbourhood sociodemographic factors with a greater burden faced by already deprived areas. Because urban social and health injustices already existed in those geographical units with higher COVID-19 incidence in Barcelona, the current pandemic is likely to reinforce both health and social inequalities, and urban environmental injustice all together.Our data are accessible to researchers upon reasonable request for data sharing to the corresponding author. Our dataset has been built based on publicly available data in the referred repositories.