Annals of Epidemiology

ObjectiveTo estimate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mortality rates among individuals incarcerated in U.S. state prisons by race and ethnicity (RE). DesignRetrospective population-based analysis SettingData from state-level Departments of Corrections (DOCs) from March 1 through October 1, 2020. ParticipantsPublicly available data collected by Freedom of Information Act requests representing adults in the custody of US state DOCs. Main OutcomesCumulative COVID-19 death and custody popula...

1.ImportanceTracking the direct and indirect impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on all-cause mortality in the United States has been hindered by the lack of testing and by reporting delays. Evaluating excess mortality, or the number of deaths above what is expected in a given time period, provides critical insights into the true burden of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Stratifying mortality data by d...

BackgroundMultiracial adults represent a growing U.S. population but are often grouped together or reassigned to single-race categories in public health data. Aggregation can obscure important variation across subgroups, limiting opportunities for targeted prevention. MethodsWe analyzed 2014-2023 California Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data (n=100,177) to estimate prevalence of 28 health indicators across racial and ethnic groups, including disaggregated Multiracial subgroups. We ...

Males and certain racial/ethnic minority groups have borne a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 mortality in the United States, and substantial scientific research has sought to quantify and characterize population-level disparities in COVID-19 mortality outcomes by sex and across categories of race/ethnicity. However, there has not yet been a national population-level study to quantify disparities in COVID-19 mortality outcomes across the intersection of these demographic dimensions. Here, we ...

BackgroundCurrent reporting of Covid-19 mortality data by race and ethnicity across the United States could bias our understanding of population-mortality disparities. Moreover, stark differences in age distribution by race and ethnicity groups are seldom accounted for in analyses. MethodsTo address these gaps, we conducted a cross-sectional study using publicly-reported Covid-19 mortality data to assess the quality of race and ethnicity data (Black, Latinx, white), and estimated age-adjusted d...

BackgroundOn March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) a pandemic. Nearly five million individuals have since been diagnosed with this increasingly common and potentially lethal viral infection. Emerging evidence suggests a disproportionate burden of illness and death among minority communities. We aimed to evaluate the effect of ethnicity on outcomes among patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in Northern Nevada. DesignSingle-center, retrospective obse...

IntroductionThe population and spatial characteristics of COVID-19 infections are poorly understood, but there is increasing evidence that in addition to individual clinical factors, demographic, socioeconomic and racial characteristics play an important role. MethodsWe analyzed positive COVID-19 testing results counts within New York City ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTA) with Bayesian hierarchical Poisson spatial models using integrated nested Laplace approximations. ResultsSpatial clustering...

IntroductionData on race and ethnic susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection are limited. We analyzed socio-demographic factors associated with higher likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 infection and explore mediating pathways for race disparities in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. MethodsCross sectional analysis of COVID-19 Surveillance and Outcomes Registry (CURATOR), which captures data for a large healthcare system comprising of one central tertiary care, seven large community hospitals, and an expansive ambu...

BackgroundExcess death for Black people compared with White people is a measure of health equity. We sought to determine the excess deaths under the age of 65 (<65) for Black people in the United States (US) over the most recent 20-year period. We also compared the excess deaths for Black people with a cause of death that is traditionally reported. MethodsWe used the Center of Disease Control (CDC) WONDERs Multiple Cause of Death 1999-2019 dataset to report age-adjusted mortality rates among no...

Provisional U.S. national COVID-19 mortality data for the year 2020 analyzed by the CDC in March 2021 indicated that non-Hispanic Asians fared markedly better overall than other racial/ethnic minority groups-and marginally better than non-Hispanic Whites-in terms of age-adjusted mortality rates. However, Asians in the United States are composed of diverse array of origin subgroups with highly varying social, economic, and environmental experiences, which influence health outcomes. As such, lumpi...

BackgroundRobust community-level SARS-CoV-2 prevalence estimates have been difficult to obtain in the American South and outside of major metropolitan areas. Furthermore, though some previous studies have investigated the association of demographic factors such as race with SARS-CoV-2 exposure risk, fewer have correlated exposure risk to surrogates for socioeconomic status such as health insurance coverage. MethodsWe used a highly specific serological assay utilizing the receptor binding domain...

IntroductionRecent research underscores the exceptionally young age distribution of Covid-19 deaths in the United States compared with international peers. This brief characterizes how high levels of Covid mortality at midlife ages (45-64) are deeply intertwined with continuing racial inequity in Covid-19 mortality. MethodsMortality data from Minnesota in 2020-2022 were analyzed in June 2022. Death certificate data and published vaccination rates in Minnesota allow vaccination and mortality rat...

BackgroundRecent epidemiological evidence has demonstrated a higher rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths among minorities. This pattern of race-ethnic disparities emerging throughout the United States raises the question of what social factors may influence spread of a highly transmissible novel coronavirus. The purpose of this study is to describe race-ethnic and socioeconomic disparities associated with COVID-19 in patients in our community in Orange County, California and understand t...

ObjectivePedestrian mortality in the United States has increased seven times faster than the population growth from 2019 to 2023, according to a Governors Highway Safety Association report. This alarming trend highlights the need to study pedestrian mortality patterns, stratified by gender, race/ethnicity, age group, and state-specific characteristics, along with an exploration of contributing factors driving this surge. MethodsThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online ...

We studied COVID-19 case mortality in Florida among four successive cohorts of persons at least 50 years of age, each of whom we followed for 28 to 48 days from date of diagnosis. The cohorts were separated by date of diagnosis into four nonoverlapping intervals: March 29 - April 18; April 29 - May 19; May 21 - June 10; and June 14 - July 4, 2020. Case mortality rates declined consistently and significantly over the course of the four intervals: 57% among those aged 50-59 years; 62% among those ...

The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), and the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) each publish safety ratings of new passenger vehicles based on crash test results and crash avoidance technology soon after they are introduced into the market. IIHS alone singles out vehicles for "Top Safety Pick". The Institute also periodically lists driver death rates of vehicles during their first few years of use, acco...

AO_SCPLOWBSTRACTC_SCPLOWO_ST_ABSBackgroundC_ST_ABSPrior research has identified higher rates of COVID-19 mortality among people of color (relative to non-Hispanic whites) and populations in high-poverty neighborhoods (relative to wealthier neighborhoods). It is unclear, however, whether non-Hispanic whites in high-poverty neighborhoods experience elevated mortality, or whether people of color living in wealthy areas are relatively protected. Exploring socioeconomic position in combination with r...

Nonfatal injuries caused by law enforcement are a widespread yet underexamined public health concern in the United States, with significant implications for racial health equity. Using data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System--All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP) from 2004 to 2021, this study estimated national trends in emergency department visits for injuries inflicted by on-duty police and assessed disparities across racial and ethnic groups. The analysis incorporated imputation...

BACKGROUNDDuring the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, predominantly African-American or Hispanic communities were disproportionately impacted. We sought to better understand the epidemiology of COVID-19 among hospitalized Hispanic patients by comparing individual and census-tract level characteristics of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 to those diagnosed with influenza, another viral infection with respiratory transmission. We evaluated the temporal changes in epidemiology across race-eth...

Several analyses have highlighted racial and ethnic disparities related to COVID-19 health outcomes across the United States. Less focus has been placed on more localized contexts, such as carceral settings, where racial and ethnic inequities in COVID-19 health outcomes also exist, but the proximal drivers of inequality are different. In this study, we analyzed mortality rates among incarcerated people in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) to assess racial and ethnic differences in ...