Open AccessCensus tract socioeconomic indicators and COVID-19-associated hospitalization rates—COVID-NET surveillance areas in 14 states, March 1–April 30, 2020
Author(s) -
Jonathan M. Wortham,
Seth Meador,
James L. Hadler,
Kimberly YouseyHindes,
Isaac See,
Michael Whitaker,
Alissa O’Halloran,
Jennifer Milucky,
Shua J. Chai,
Arthur Reingold,
Nisha B Alden,
Breanna Kawasaki,
Evan J. Anderson,
Kyle P. Openo,
Andrew Weigel,
Maya Monroe,
Patricia Ryan,
Sue Kim,
Libby Reeg,
Ruth Lynfield,
Melissa McMahon,
Daniel M. Sosin,
Nancy Eisenberg,
Adam Rowe,
Grant Barney,
Nancy M. Bennett,
Sophrena Bushey,
Laurie M Billing,
Jess Shiltz,
Melissa Sutton,
Nicole West,
H. Keipp Talbot,
William Schaffner,
Keegan McCaffrey,
Melanie Spencer,
Anita Kambhampati,
Onika Anglin,
Alexandra M Piasecki,
Rachel Holstein,
Aron J. Hall,
Alicia M. Fry,
Shikha Garg,
Lindsay Kim
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0257622
Subject(s) - census , socioeconomic status , demography , poverty , confidence interval , census tract , medicine , ethnic group , population , covid-19 , public health , gerontology , geography , environmental health , political science , nursing , sociology , law , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Objectives Some studies suggested more COVID-19-associated hospitalizations among racial and ethnic minorities. To inform public health practice, the COVID-19-associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET) quantified associations between race/ethnicity, census tract socioeconomic indicators, and COVID-19-associated hospitalization rates. Methods Using data from COVID-NET population-based surveillance reported during March 1–April 30, 2020 along with socioeconomic and denominator data from the US Census Bureau, we calculated COVID-19-associated hospitalization rates by racial/ethnic and census tract-level socioeconomic strata. Results Among 16,000 COVID-19-associated hospitalizations, 34.8% occurred among non-Hispanic White (White) persons, 36.3% among non-Hispanic Black (Black) persons, and 18.2% among Hispanic or Latino (Hispanic) persons. Age-adjusted COVID-19-associated hospitalization rate were 151.6 (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 147.1–156.1) in census tracts with >15.2%–83.2% of persons living below the federal poverty level (high-poverty census tracts) and 75.5 (95% CI: 72.9–78.1) in census tracts with 0%–4.9% of persons living below the federal poverty level (low-poverty census tracts). Among White, Black, and Hispanic persons living in high-poverty census tracts, age-adjusted hospitalization rates were 120.3 (95% CI: 112.3–128.2), 252.2 (95% CI: 241.4–263.0), and 341.1 (95% CI: 317.3–365.0), respectively, compared with 58.2 (95% CI: 55.4–61.1), 304.0 (95%: 282.4–325.6), and 540.3 (95% CI: 477.0–603.6), respectively, in low-poverty census tracts. Conclusions Overall, COVID-19-associated hospitalization rates were highest in high-poverty census tracts, but rates among Black and Hispanic persons were high regardless of poverty level. Public health practitioners must ensure mitigation measures and vaccination campaigns address needs of racial/ethnic minority groups and people living in high-poverty census tracts.