Megan D. Douglas, Anne H. Gaglioti, Chaohua Li, Mitchell A. Blount, Peter T. Baltrus, and Dominic Mack are with the National Center for Primary Care, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA. Ebony Respress, Jammie Hopkins, and Daniel E. Dawes are with the Satcher Health Leadership Institute, Morehouse School of Medicine. Robina Josiah Willock and Lee S. Caplan are with the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine.
Am J Public Health. 2021 Jun;111(6):1141-1148. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2021.306167. Epub 2021 Apr 15.
Despite growing evidence that COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting communities of color, state-reported racial/ethnic data are insufficient to measure the true impact.We found that between April 12, 2020, and November 9, 2020, the number of US states reporting COVID-19 confirmed cases by race and ethnicity increased from 25 to 50 and 15 to 46, respectively. However, the percentage of confirmed cases reported with missing race remained high at both time points (29% on April 12; 23% on November 9). Our analysis demonstrates improvements in reporting race/ethnicity related to COVID-19 cases and deaths and highlights significant problems with the quality and contextualization of the data being reported.We discuss challenges for improving race/ethnicity data collection and reporting, along with opportunities to advance health equity through more robust data collection and contextualization. To mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on racial/ethnic minorities, accurate and high-quality demographic data are needed and should be analyzed in the context of the social and political determinants of health.
尽管越来越多的证据表明，COVID-19 对有色人种社区的影响不成比例，但各州报告的种族/族裔数据不足以衡量其真实影响。我们发现，2020 年 4 月 12 日至 11 月 9 日期间，美国报告 COVID-19 确诊病例的州数量按种族和族裔分别从 25 个增加到 50 个和从 15 个增加到 46 个。然而，两个时间点报告的缺失种族的确诊病例比例仍然很高（4 月 12 日为 29%；11 月 9 日为 23%）。我们的分析表明，与 COVID-19 病例和死亡相关的种族/族裔报告有所改善，但报告的数据质量和背景存在严重问题。我们讨论了改进种族/族裔数据收集和报告的挑战，以及通过更强大的数据收集和背景化来促进健康公平的机会。为了减轻 COVID-19 对少数族裔的影响，需要准确和高质量的人口数据，并应根据健康的社会和政治决定因素进行分析。
