5 Things: Vaccines in the US Need Latinos and Blacks 2:13
(CNN) - Blacks, Latinos, American Indians and Alaska Natives were disproportionately hospitalized for COVID-19, according to a new analysis of the populations of 12 states published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
"This analysis identified considerable disparities in the prevalence of COVID-19 among racial / ethnic subgroups of the population in 12 states," said the researchers from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.
In a nearly two-month period from late April to late June, there were 48,788 cumulative COVID-19 hospitalizations in the states that reported race and hospitalization data: Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia and Washington.
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"The proportion of hospitalizations for white patients was substantially lower compared to their proportion of the population in the 12 states," the authors found.
According to the study, the opposite was true for black patients: their percentage of hospitalizations exceeded the percentage of their representative proportion of the state population. This was highest in Ohio, where black patients accounted for 31.8% of hospitalizations and 13% of the population. Minnesota, Indiana and Kansas also had particularly high rates of hospitalizations for black people compared to the population.
Of the 11 states that reported the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations for Hispanic patients, 10 had hospitalizations for Hispanic patients that were higher than their representative proportion of the state population. This was most pronounced in Virginia, where Hispanics accounted for 36.2% of hospitalizations, compared with 9.6% of the population. Utah and Rhode Island also had high levels of hospitalizations compared to the percentage of the population.
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Only eight states reported hospitalization data for the American Indian and Alaska Native populations, but in some of these states there was a substantial disparity. For example, in Arizona, this group represents 4% of the state's population, but 15.7% of hospitalizations. In Utah, this group accounted for 0.9% of the state's population, but 5% of hospitalizations.
Asian stocks were the only group in which the pattern was largely reversed. In 6 of the 10 states that reported data, hospitalization rates were lower than population representation. For example, in Massachusetts, the Asian population represents 7% of the population, but only 4% of hospitalizations.
These findings are consistent with data from previous research, according to the authors, and highlight the need for more information and data consistency within and between states. The study has some limitations, including the fact that it was not adjusted for age, sex, underlying conditions, and socioeconomic factors within racial / ethnic groups likely to be related to hospitalization for COVID-19.
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