Dataset Information

The impact of COVID-19 on African American communities in the United States.

ABSTRACT: 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.

SUBMITTER: Cyrus E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7273254 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The impact of COVID-19 on African American communities in the United States.

Cyrus E E Clarke R R Hadley D D Bursac Z Z Trepka M J MJ Dévieux J G JG Bagci U U Furr-Holden D D Coudray M M Mariano Y Y Kiplagat S S Noel I I Ravelo G J GJ Paley M M Wagner E E

medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences 20200519

<h4>Importance</h4>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.<h4>Study objective</h4>To understand the impact of the density of African American communities (defined as the percentage of African Americans in a county) on C ...[more]

PMID: 32511486

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Project description:BackgroundThe CoVID-19 pandemic underscored effects of community resources on the built environment, health and health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to conduct community-engaged research and examine aspects of health, and access to healthcare from the voices of community members, as a foundation for improving health equity through the built environment.MethodsThis study utilized a convergent mixed methods design that included surveys and semi-structured interviews conducted from July 2021 to August 2022 to examine the impact of limited community resources, such as community health clinics on participants during the CoVID-19 pandemic. A convenient sample of 345 male and female African American participants represented five zip codes (21215, 21216, 21217, 21223, and 21229) in with the highest impact from CoVID 19, in Baltimore, Maryland. Quantitative and qualitative data were integrated to describe how the two types supported one another in health, healthcare and healthcare access.ResultsMore than half of all participants reported satisfaction with overall health, quality of healthcare provided and access to health care services. However, results indicated extreme differences in factors related to health and wellness after, as comparted to before the onset of the pandemic, Semi-structured interviews, expanded on overall community health, highlighting that overall satisfaction with health does not equal satisfaction with health-related resources and suggested participants felt frustrated and left out of much-needed community health resources to improve health and mental health services for all ages, nutrition services and community activities that make communities thrive. Data integration provided a more realistic view of what participants really experience, due to the expanded analysis of semi-structured interviews, and indicated quantitative and qualitative data did not always support each other.ConclusionsFuture research to improve the built environment, and to address historic health inequities, will require ongoing community engagement to better understand community needs. This study results encourage ongoing research to expand resources for community-engaged research and interventions. Researchers must remain cognoscente of changing needs, and persistent disparities that can only be addressed if policies, supported by these results, are introduced to make equitable investments to forge an environment where healthy communities thrive.

Dataset Information

The impact of COVID-19 on African American communities in the United States.

Publications

The impact of COVID-19 on African American communities in the United States.

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