November 25, 2020

Disaggregating Asian Race Reveals COVID-19 Disparities among Asian Americans at New York City’s Public Hospital System

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Public Health Policy and Practice

Keywords (Tags): disparities

• [Pre-print; not peer-reviewed] A retrospective analysis of 85,328 patients tested for COVID-19 at New York City’s public hospital system between March and May of 2020 found that among Asian American patients, South Asian patients had the highest rates of SARS-CoV-2 positivity. Patients of South Asian descent also had higher rates of comorbid conditions such as hypertension (26%), obesity (14%; BMI > 30), diabetes (231%), and heart disease (22%) than other Asian ethnic groups. Patients of Chinese descent had the highest mortality rate of all Asian ethnic groups and were nearly 1.5-times more likely to die than white patients (OR=1.44). The authors suggest that disaggregating race data could help address disparities in infection and mortality risks among Asian Americans.

Marcello et al. (Nov 24, 2020). Disaggregating Asian Race Reveals COVID-19 Disparities among Asian Americans at New York City’s Public Hospital System. Pre-print downloaded Nov. 25 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.23.20233155