Collateral positives of COVID-19 for culturally and linguistically diverse communities in Western Sydney, Australia

by Samuel Cornell, Julie Ayre, Olivia Mac, Raveena Kapoor, Kristen Pickles, Carys Batcup, Hankiz Dolan, Carissa Bonner, Erin Cvejic, Dana Mouwad, Dipti Zacharia, Una Tularic, Yvonne Santalucia, Ting Ting Chen, Gordana Basic, Kirsten McCaffery, Danielle Muscat

To investigate whether culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities in Western Sydney have experienced any positive effects during the COVID-19 pandemic, and if so, what these were.

A cross–sectional survey with ten language groups was conducted from 21^st March to 9^th July 2021 in Sydney, Australia. Participants were recruited through bilingual multicultural health staff and health care interpreter service staff and answered a question, ‘In your life, have you experienced any positive effects from the COVID-19 pandemic?’ Differences were explored by demographic variables. Free–text responses were thematically coded using the Content Analysis method.

707 people completed the survey, aged 18 to >70, 49% males and 51% females. Only 161 (23%) of those surveyed reported any positive impacts. There were significant differences in the proportion of those who reported positives based on age (p = 0.004), gender (p = 0.013), language (p = 0.003), health literacy (p = 0.014), English language proficiency (p = 0.003), education (p = <0.001) and whether participants had children less than 18 years at home (p = 0.001). Content Analysis of open-ended responses showed that, of those that did report positives, the top themes were ‘Family time’ (44%), ‘Improved self-care’ (31%) and, ‘Greater connection with others’ (17%).

Few surveyed participants reported finding any positives stemming from the COVID–19 pandemic. This finding is in stark contrast to related research in Australia with participants whose native language is English in which many more people experienced positives. The needs of people from CALD backgrounds must inform future responses to community crises to facilitate an equitable effect of any collateral positives that may arise.