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The impact of COVID-19 on African American communities in the United States
E Cyrus1, R Clarke2, D Hadley3
1Department of Epidemiology, Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199.
Insights
African American communities experienced disproportionately higher COVID-19 prevalence and death rates. Higher community density correlated with increased COVID-19 cases and mortality, highlighting health disparities.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Epidemiology
- Health Disparities
Background:
- The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected racial/ethnic minority populations in the U.S.
- African American communities have historically faced significant negative health outcomes.
- Understanding the impact of community demographics on COVID-19 is crucial.
Conclusions:
- Communities with higher African American density experienced a disproportionate burden of COVID-19.
- Further research is needed to identify underlying environmental or individual factors.
- Investigate employment types and comorbidities contributing to these health disparities.
Importance:
The novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), declared a pandemic in March 2020, may present with disproportionately higher rates in underrepresented racial/ethnic minority populations in the United States, including African American communities who have traditionally been over-represented in negative health outcomes.
Study Objective:
To understand the impact of the density of African American communities (defined as the percentage of African Americans in a county) on COVID-19 prevalence and death rate within the three most populous counties in each U.S. state and territory (n=152). Design: An ecological study using linear regression was employed for the study.
Setting:
The top three most populous counties of each U.S. state and territory were included in analyses for a final sample size of n=152 counties.
Participants:
Confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths that were accumulated between January 22, 2020 and April 12, 2020 in each of the three most populous counties in each U.S. state and territory were included.
Main Outcome Measures:
Linear regression was used to determine the association between African American density and COVID-19 prevalence (defined as the percentage of cases for the county population), and death rate (defined as number of deaths per 100,000 population). The models were adjusted for median age and poverty.
Results:
There was a direct association between African American density and COVID-19 prevalence; COVID-19 prevalence increased 5% for every 1% increase in county AA density (p<.01). There was also an association between county AA density and COVID-19 deaths, such; the death rate increased 2 per 100,000 for every percentage increase in county AA density (p=.02).
Conclusion:
These study findings indicate that communities with a high African American density have been disproportionately burdened with COVID-19. Further study is needed to indicate if this burden is related to environmental factors or individual factors such as types of employment or comorbidities that members of these community have.
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