Racial/ethnic minority and neighborhood disadvantage leads to disproportionate mortality burden and years of potential life lost due to COVID-19 in Chicago, Illinois

Health Place. 2021 Mar:68:102540. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102540. Epub 2021 Feb 19.

Abstract

Epidemiological studies have highlighted the disparate impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on racial and ethnic minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations, but data at the neighborhood-level is sparse. The objective of this study was to investigate the disparate impact of COVID-19 on disadvantaged neighborhoods and racial/ethnic minorities in Chicago, Illinois. Using data from the Cook County Medical Examiner, we conducted a neighborhood-level analysis of COVID-19 decedents in Chicago and quantified age-standardized years of potential life lost (YPLL) due to COVID-19 among demographic subgroups and neighborhoods with geospatial clustering of high and low rates of COVID-19 mortality. We show that age-standardized YPLL was markedly higher among the non-Hispanic (NH) Black (559 years per 100,000 population) and the Hispanic (811) compared with NH white decedents (312). We demonstrate that geomapping using residential address data at the individual-level identifies hot-spots of COVID-19 mortality in neighborhoods on the Northeast, West, and South areas of Chicago that reflect a legacy of residential segregation and persistence of inequality in education, income, and access to healthcare. Our results may contribute to ongoing public health and community-engaged efforts to prevent the spread of infection and mitigate the disproportionate loss of life among these communities due to COVID-19 as well as highlight the urgent need to broadly target neighborhood disadvantage as a cause of pervasive racial inequalities in life and health.

Keywords: COVID-19; Neighborhood-level; Social determinants of health.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • COVID-19* / mortality
  • Chicago / epidemiology
  • Ethnicity / statistics & numerical data*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Minority Groups / statistics & numerical data*
  • Quality-Adjusted Life Years*
  • Racial Groups*
  • Residence Characteristics / statistics & numerical data*