Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have noted a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death among Black and Hispanic individuals in the United States. In March 2020, the CDC reported that twice as many Black individuals were hospitalized with COVID-19 than were proportionally represented in the U.S. These disparities may be attributed to long-standing health and social inequities.
To examine the influence of racial and ethnic differences in socioeconomic position on COVID-19 outcomes within a large U.S. national cohort, a team of CUNY SPH researchers including Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health (ISPH) Investigator McKaylee Robertson and Distinguished Professor and ISPH Executive Director Denis Nash led a study published this month as a preprint in medRxiv.
The researchers created three indices to assess socioeconomic position: ability to social distance as a measure of exposure to COVID-19, susceptibility to severe COVID-19, and healthcare access. The findings suggest that non-white participants have more exposure risk and more difficulty with healthcare access than white participants. More exposure risk increased the odds of COVID-19 seroconversion. More underlying susceptibility and more difficulty with healthcare access increased the odds of hospitalization.
“This may explain the disproportionate burden of COVID-19 infections and complications among these populations,” said Robertson, the study’s lead author. “Prevention efforts should take into consideration disparities in COVID-19 exposure, vaccination, and treatment.”
This research builds on the authors’ earlier work with the CHASING COVID Cohort Study that showed persistent racial/ethnic disparities in seroconversion risk as well as elevated risk among essential workers.