Race, marital status, age, and other health issues play a major role.
By PENNINGTON BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH CENTER
Ochsner Health and Pennington Biomedical
Research Center analyzed 4,752 records from two large prevalence studies in
both cities. The New Orleans data were collected in May 2020, the Baton Rouge
data in July 2020.
“We found that communities that experience a lot
of deprivation – high household crowding, lower income, disparities in
education, etc. – are at higher risk for COVID,” said Amy Feehan, Ph.D., a
clinical research scientist at Ochsner and the lead author of the study.
“But individual factors, such as race, marital status, age and other
health issues, account for a lot of that risk.”
The study shows that in Baton Rouge the odds of
infection were higher for:
- People
between 18 and 37 years old compared to people 38 and over.
- Black
adults and single adults compared to white adults and married adults.
- People
in health care, public-facing jobs, or other jobs compared to office
workers.
The study shows that in New Orleans the odds of
infection were higher for:
- Black
adults and single adults compared to white adults and married adults.
Infection risk for single adults was about 50 percent higher than for
married adults.
- Households
with multiple residents compared to people who lived alone
- People
with no other health issues compared to those with two or more medical
conditions.
In addition to examining individual factors, the study also looked at characteristics of communities that might be related to higher COVID-19 infection. Infection risk was higher among residents in communities with larger differences in household income in New Orleans but not in Baton Rouge. Higher monthly rent in New Orleans and higher percentages of high school graduates in Baton Rouge communities were associated with lower odds of infection.
Kara Denstel, Project Manager for Population and
Public Health Sciences at Pennington Biomedical, said the findings may have
been influenced by when researchers gathered the information.
“New Orleans data were collected in May 2020,
when residents were under a stay-at-home order. Most restaurants and shops were
closed. Non-essential employees worked from home,” Denstel said. “But when we
collected the Baton Rouge data in July 2020, the stay-at-home orders had been
lifted, businesses were reopening, and people were going back into the
workplace.”
“In addition, there was a rapid increase in
knowledge and public health prevention campaigns during late spring and summer
of 2020,” Denstel said. “The reason young adults in Baton Rouge had the
greatest risk of infection may have been because they were the first to go back
to work and resume social activities. Meanwhile, by July 2020 older age had
emerged as a major risk factor for severe COVID-19 so many older adults were
still staying home.”
The study was supported by Ochsner, the Baton
Rouge Area Foundation, Louisiana COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, The Humana
Foundation, The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation, Healthy
Blue, the Huey and Angelina Wilson Foundation, and the Irene W. and C.B.
Pennington Foundation.
Pennington Biomedical Executive Director John
Kirwan, Ph.D., said the study illustrates another of the Research Center’s
strengths: flexibility. Pennington Biomedical responded quickly to the needs of
Louisiana and its residents, pivoting to focus resources and the center’s
considerable talents on battling the pandemic.
“Knowing how the virus spreads and identifying
the most vulnerable in our communities are important steps to slowing COVID-19
infections,” Dr. Kirwan said.
The study was published in the journal PLOS One.
Reference: “Community versus individual risk of
SARS-CoV-2 infection in two municipalities of Louisiana, USA: An assessment of
Area Deprivation Index (ADI) paired with seroprevalence data over time” by Amy
K. Feehan, Kara D. Denstel, Peter T. Katzmarzyk, Cruz Velasco, Jeffrey H.
Burton, Eboni G. Price-Haywood and Leonardo Seoane, 30 November 2021, PLOS One.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260164