08 - The Unequal Burden: Mapping New Prototypes related to Mortality and Vaccination of COVID-19
Conference: Women in Statistics and Data Science 2022
10/07/2022: 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM CDT
Speed
Room: Grand Ballroom Salon G
Background: Understanding the current burden of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mortality rates variation within regions and communities will help inform and address public health challenges. Therefore, this research aimed to explore new prototypes to explain the association between location and COVID -19 health outcomes.
Methods: This study used publicly available data including, county-level COVID-19 case and death counts, and vaccination data (through January 1st, 2022), county health rank data 2021, the United States Department of Agriculture Rural–Urban Commuting Areas (RUCCA) data, and 2020 presidential voting tallies were included. Analyses were done to examine whether spatial regression models will predict if RUCC, racial diversity, health, behavioral, social, economic, political opinions, and public health policies are associated with COVID-19 Mortality rates (across 4 waves of the pandemic and the overall period). Weight matrix was the "Queen's contingency" method. All analyses were performed using R and p-value <0.05.
Results: Total of 3107 counties will be included in this study. COVID-19 county level health disparities exist along racial and ethnic lines, as well as locations. Although the general trend of mortality was going down, counties with majority of minority populations showed higher mortality when compared to counties with a majority white population across RUCCA. Also, non-metropolitan, non-adjacent to a metropolitan region with majority of American Indians showed the highest mortality in 2020 when compared to other counties. Counties with majority Black population have achieved smaller shares of vaccinations compared to their shares of mortality. Yet, counties with majority American Indian achieved higher vaccination rates as compared to other counties. Political standings have also been shown to have a significant role in COVID-19 mortality.
Conclusion: Geographic continues to highlight variations in health outcomes among many racial groups in the U.S. as minorities in rural areas had higher mortality. Health care leaders and policymakers should be proactive in developing targeted prevention strategies and response plans to manage poor health outcomes in vulnerable rural populations.
Clustering
Spatial analysis
Infectious disease
pandemic
Racial disparities
Rurality
Presenting Author
Ruaa Al Juboori, Saint Louis University
First Author
Ruaa Al Juboori, Saint Louis University
CoAuthor(s)
Ness Sandoval, Saint Louis University
Divya Subramaniam, Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Target Audience
Mid-Level
Tracks
Knowledge
Women in Statistics and Data Science 2022
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