The relationship between living in poverty and youth COVID-19 testing in underserved populations

Children living in poverty face particular risk for pandemic-related adverse health events. Place-based pandemic-related health inequities may vary for children living in poverty due to social and environmental factors. We aimed to examine the association between living in low-income households and COVID-19 testing in youth across several regions of the United States.

This cross-sectional study drew data from three Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations projects (2021-2023). The association between living in low-income households and COVID-19 testing was analyzed by project using logistic regression adjusted for age, sex assigned at birth, race and ethnicity, and household member job loss.

Participants (n = 2934; median [first quartile-third quartile] age, 12 [11-13] years; sex, 52 % male; race, 56 % White, 21 % other; ethnicity, 48 % Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish Origin; income, 18 % living in a low-income household) were included. Overall, 83·5 % of the participants had prior COVID-19 testing. Youth participants living in low-income households had 39 % lower adjusted odds of prior testing for COVID-19 compared to those not living in low-income households (0·61; 95 % CI, 0·42-0·88).

Youth living in low-income households had lower odds of prior testing for COVID-19 compared to those not living in low-income households.