Westat, MD, Rockville, USA.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2023 Feb;10(1):4-13. doi: 10.1007/s40615-021-01191-5. Epub 2021 Nov 29.
The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected minorities in population rates of infection, hospitalization, and mortality. However, little is known about the broader racial disparities in fears and perceptions about the pandemic and getting treated.
To examine disparities in perceived risks of COVID-19 and getting medical care.
Using the nationally representative Stanford University School of Medicine Coronavirus Attitudes and Behaviors Survey fielded in May of 2020, we examine racial and ethnic disparities in eight measures on the perceived risks of COVID-19. We use regression analysis to risk adjust perceptions controlling for 10 socioeconomic, demographic, and health variables.
Black respondents were 15 percentage points more likely than White respondents to believe the pandemic would not end by Summer 2020 (92% vs 77%, p < .01), and were 19 percentage points more likely than any other race to feel a need to protect their family from COVID-19 (81% vs 62%, p < .01). Latinx respondents were 10 percentage points more fearful than White respondents of catching COVID-19 in public places (55% vs 45%, p < 0.01). Black respondents were 20 percentage points more likely than White respondents to think they would need medical care if infected (71% vs 51%, p < .01), and 18 percentage points more likely to think they would need to be hospitalized (59% vs 41%, p < .01). The proportion of Black respondents believing that the hospital would not have enough capacity to treat them if infected with COVID-19 was 12 percentage points higher than White respondents (41% vs 29%, p < 0.05).
Disparities in the COVID-19-related perceived risks and mistrust in healthcare across racial and ethnic groups existed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we enter into a post-COVID New Normal, new policies must ensure that the causes of this widespread fear and distrust in the healthcare system are understood and reversed.
新冠疫情以感染率、住院率和死亡率的形式不成比例地影响了少数族裔。然而，对于大流行期间和就医过程中人们对疫情的恐惧和看法方面更广泛的种族差异知之甚少。
研究对新冠病毒的感知风险和获得医疗护理方面的差异。
我们使用斯坦福大学医学院 2020 年 5 月进行的具有全国代表性的冠状病毒态度和行为调查，研究了八种感知新冠病毒风险措施上的种族和民族差异。我们使用回归分析，通过控制 10 个社会经济、人口统计学和健康变量来对风险进行调整。
黑人受访者比白人受访者更有可能认为疫情不会在 2020 年夏季结束（92%比 77%，p<0.01），比任何其他种族的人更有可能感到需要保护家人免受新冠病毒的侵害（81%比 62%，p<0.01）。拉丁裔受访者比白人受访者更担心在公共场所感染新冠病毒（55%比 45%，p<0.01）。黑人受访者比白人受访者更有可能认为如果感染新冠病毒需要医疗护理（71%比 51%，p<0.01），更有可能认为需要住院治疗（59%比 41%，p<0.01）。黑人受访者认为如果感染新冠病毒，医院没有足够能力治疗的比例比白人受访者高 12 个百分点（41%比 29%，p<0.05）。
在新冠疫情大流行开始时，不同种族和族裔群体之间就存在与新冠病毒相关的感知风险和对医疗保健的不信任方面的差异。随着我们进入后新冠时代的新常态，新政策必须确保理解并扭转导致这种对医疗体系的广泛恐惧和不信任的原因。
