Kukafka Rita, Millery Mari, Pan Samuel, Silverman Thomas B, Zhang Tianmai, McGuinness Julia E, Crew Katherine D, Aguirre Alejandra N
Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY USA.
Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY USA.
Humanit Soc Sci Commun. 2023;10(1):245. doi: 10.1057/s41599-023-01679-x. Epub 2023 May 17.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted among high-risk, racially/ethnically diverse adults at the point in time when New York City (NYC) became the COVID-19 pandemic's global epicenter. The study objective was to assess the threat and coping appraisals (cognitive factors known to correspond with people's willingness to adopt behaviorally focused interventions) and levels of distress, anxiety, and intolerance for uncertainty (emotional factors). Survey respondents were recruited in April 2020 using an online survey with unpaid recruitment on the GetHealthyHeights.org community-oriented website. We also recruited participants that engaged in previous research studies to gain survey responses from community members at higher risk for COVID-19 complications due to comorbidities compared to the general population. Analysis was performed to test for differences in survey responses by comorbidities, age, race, ethnicity, and employment status. Results show that the devastating effects of the pandemic appear to have uniquely impacted minority respondents, who reported significantly higher levels of anxiety and were significantly more likely to report having little control over whether they will get COVID-19 compared with White/non-Hispanic respondents. Minority respondents also had significantly higher mean scores on the behaviorally focused dimension of the intolerance of uncertainty (IU) scale, which measures avoidance and paralysis in the face of uncertainty. In multivariate analysis, IU predicted anxiety levels, and this association was not mediated by cognitive factors (threat and coping appraisals). By conducting this survey early in the pandemic, our study uniquely evaluated cognitive and emotional factors among a racially/ethnically diverse group of NYC residents during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings suggest the need to acknowledge the disparities that appear to exist in pandemic response and for culturally tailored messaging and interventions. Few studies have reported differences by race and ethnicity during pandemic exposure. Therefore, further research on factors that may influence pandemic response among minority populations is needed.
在纽约市成为新冠疫情全球震中之时，对高危、种族/民族多样化的成年人进行了一项横断面调查。研究目的是评估威胁和应对评估（已知与人们采取以行为为重点的干预措施的意愿相对应的认知因素）以及痛苦、焦虑和对不确定性的不耐受程度（情绪因素）。2020年4月，通过在GetHealthyHeights.org这个面向社区的网站上进行无偿招募的在线调查来招募调查对象。我们还招募了参与过先前研究的参与者，以便从因合并症而比普通人群患新冠并发症风险更高的社区成员那里获得调查回复。进行分析以检验合并症、年龄、种族、民族和就业状况在调查回复方面的差异。结果显示，疫情的毁灭性影响似乎对少数族裔受访者产生了独特影响，与白人/非西班牙裔受访者相比，他们报告的焦虑水平显著更高，并且报告对自己是否会感染新冠几乎没有控制权的可能性也显著更高。少数族裔受访者在不确定性不耐受（IU）量表以行为为重点的维度上的平均得分也显著更高，该量表衡量面对不确定性时的回避和麻痹。在多变量分析中，IU预测了焦虑水平，并且这种关联不受认知因素（威胁和应对评估）的介导。通过在疫情早期进行这项调查，我们的研究独特地评估了在新冠疫情高峰期纽约市居民中一个种族/民族多样化群体的认知和情绪因素。我们的研究结果表明，有必要认识到在疫情应对中似乎存在的差异，并进行文化上量身定制的信息传递和干预。很少有研究报告在疫情暴露期间按种族和民族划分的差异。因此，需要进一步研究可能影响少数族裔人群疫情应对的因素。
