Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus (SARS-CoV-2), which the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic in March 2020. As the disease spreads around the world affecting all population groups, it seems that the racial and ethnic minority are facing an unreasonable burden of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19, especially in the United States of America (USA) where it concentrates the highest number of cases and deaths. Studies in the country have found that poorer neighborhoods are recording higher rates of COVID-19 infections than richer neighborhoods, while neighborhoods with high proportions of black American and Hispanic populations are recording higher infection rates. Although the COVID-19 pandemic particularly impacted areas with poor measures of social determinants of health (SDOH), it has not been adequately determined which of these factors is most causative, and whether that knowledge can be used to prevent or curtail future outbreaks. Therefore, there may be other underlying causes of such a high number of COVID-19 cases among these minority groups which must be investigated in order to prevent another poor outcome for these groups.

Start Date: 2020
End date: 2021
Grant: https://www.emfoundation.org/grantee/covid19-research-grantees/

Main topic

To identify the highest at-risk patients to focus on education and resources and develop a community-based strategy to address these patients’ needs during pandemic times based on data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Maps were used to show where social determinants of health are most disproportionate or affecting people the most. Additionally, a geospatial map of COVID-19 outbreaks was put together to figure out which of the social determinants of health are most highly associated with outbreaks and may be contributing to COVID-19 clusters or hot spots. After identifying the SDOH correlated to the increase of COVID-19 cases of these risk areas were contacted by phone to respond to a questioner in order to verify reasonable solutions to improve the COVID-19 outcome.