A new study finds that African-Americans in Minnesota and 11 other states are being hospitalized for COVID-19 at a rate that exceeds their share of the population. It’s the latest in a series of reports showing how the pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minority groups.
The disparity also applies to Hispanics in 10 of 11 states surveyed, according to a research letter being published Monday based on a University of Minnesota database.
In Minnesota, researchers found that Blacks account for about 25% of COVID-19 hospitalizations, even though their share of the population is much lower, about 7%. Hispanics in Minnesota account for about 16% of COVID-19 hospitalizations and about 6% of the population.
“We know from a lot of health services and health policy research that major disparities exist across race, ethnicity and socio-economic status in terms of access to new treatment, access to care, insurance,” said Pinar Karaca-Mandic, a health economist at the U who launched the hospital tracking database this spring. “In the context of COVID-19, we also knew from earlier evidence that there were wide differences in terms of infection rates.”
She added: “We thought that it’s actually going to be really important to look at how do these disparities relate to disparities in hospitalization.”
A Star Tribune report this month surveyed Minnesota death records and found people of color are dying of COVID-19 at disproportionately high rates, accounting for 63% of the deaths among adults under age 64, though they are just 16% of that population. Among older residents, people of color account for 15% of the deaths, triple their share of the population.
In June, the Minnesota Department of Health published data showing African-Americans in Minnesota had the highest age-adjusted death rate among all racial and ethnic groups at 70 per 100,000 residents. Other studies at the time from Georgia and Louisiana showed similar disparities in hospitalization rates.
The new research letter, which is being published in JAMA Internal Medicine, looked at the race and ethnicity of individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 between April 30 and June 24. The share of hospitalizations for white patients was “substantially smaller” than their share of the population in 12 states, researchers wrote.
The study found disparities for Black patients were greatest in Ohio, Minnesota, Indiana and Kansas. For Hispanics, the disparities were most pronounced in Virginia, Utah and Rhode Island.
Researchers called for states to collect and release better data, since a lack of information on race and ethnicity among hospitalized patients meant they couldn’t study the issue in more states. A lack of data on the age of hospitalized patients “means, actually, we’re understating these disparities,” Karaca-Mandic added.
The study can’t explain why the disparities exist, she said, but other reports have suggested people of color run a greater risk of infection because they are more likely to work service jobs that increase their exposure risk. Higher rates of other health problems could contribute to more serious COVID-19 illness for Black and Hispanic patients, Karaca-Mandic said, along with barriers to quality care.
“A large body of research has identified racial/ethnic health disparities in the risk of infection associated with a higher prevalence of comorbidities, less access to health care, adverse economic conditions, and service-related occupations,” the research letter states. “The unique clinical, financial and social implications of COVID-19 for racial/ethnic populations that are often systematically marginalized in society must be well understood to design and establish effective and equitable infrastructure solutions.”