Abstract
As of 18 October 2020, over 39.5 million cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and 1.1 million associated deaths have been reported worldwide. It is crucial to understand the effect of social determination of health on novel COVID-19 outcomes in order to establish health justice. There is an imperative need, for policy makers at all levels, to consider socioeconomic and racial and ethnic disparities in pandemic planning. Cross-sectional analysis from COVID Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research COVID Racial Data Tracker was performed to evaluate the racial and ethnic distribution of COVID-19 outcomes relative to representation in the United States. Representation quotients (RQs) were calculated to assess for disparity using state-level data from the American Community Survey (ACS). We found that on a national level, Hispanic/Latinx, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders, and Black people had RQs > 1, indicating that these groups are over-represented in COVID-19 incidence. Dramatic racial and ethnic variances in state-level incidence and mortality RQs were also observed. This study investigates pandemic disparities and examines some factors which inform the social determination of health. These findings are key for developing effective public policy and allocating resources to effectively decrease health disparities. Protective standards, stay-at-home orders, and essential worker guidelines must be tailored to address the social determination of health in order to mitigate health injustices, as identified by COVID-19 incidence and mortality RQs.
Highlights
The high incidence of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United States is concerning; there have been approximately 8.2 million confirmed cases and nearly 220,000 deaths [1]
Between 1 March and 14 June 2020, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rose from 69 individuals to 2.07 million in the United States
Non-White, non-Black Hispanic/Latinx accounted for 25.58% of the confirmed cases in the US and had a Representation quotients (RQs) of 1.437
Summary
The high incidence of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United States is concerning; there have been approximately 8.2 million confirmed cases and nearly 220,000 deaths [1]. Described an imperative need for policy makers at all levels to consider socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in pandemic planning [2]. They developed a conceptual framework to illustrate the three levels by which these disparities might result in unequal rates or illness or death: disparities in exposure, in susceptibility to contracting, and in treatment of the disease [2]. In the United States, the increasing COVID-19 burden has exposed longstanding socioeconomic and health disparities. Differences in COVID-19 incidence and mortality vary dramatically, and are
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