An ecological study of the association between neighborhood racial and economic residential segregation with COVID-19 vulnerability in the United States’ capital city

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on American life. However, the burden of the pandemic has not been distributed equally. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether racial and economic residential segregation were associated with COVID-19 related factors in the nation's capital, Washington D.C., during the first year of the pandemic. Racial, economic, and racialized economic segregation were assessed using the Index of Concentration at the Extremes measure and data from the 2014-2018 American Community Survey. COVID-19 related factors (i.e., incidence, testing rate, and percent positivity) were assessed using data from the Washington D.C. government. Spearman rank correlation was used to assess the relationship between each segregation measure and each COVID-19 related factor. Washington D.C. neighborhoods with a higher concentration of African Americans, lower income residents, and African Americans with low income had a higher incidence of COVID-19 and greater percent positivity, but lower testing rates compared to their counterparts. There is a geographic mismatch between neighborhoods most vulnerable to COVID-19 and the neighborhoods where the testing resources are being used. More resources should be allocated to the most vulnerable neighborhoods to address the COVID-19 pandemic in an equitable manner.