Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hsieh, Mei-Chin
• Lefante, Christina
• Straif-Bourgeois, Susanne
• Yi, Yong
• Gomez, Natalie
• Shrestha, Pratibha
• Chen, Vivien W
• Wu, Xiao-Cheng

Titel

Racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in COVID-19 infections among working-age women with precancerous cervical lesion in Louisiana: analysis of more than two years of COVID-19 data

Ist Teil von

• Frontiers in Epidemiology (Online), 2023-05, Vol.3, p.1108452-1108452

Ort / Verlag

Switzerland: Frontiers Media S.A

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Precancerous cervical lesion (PCL) is common in working-age and minority women. In Louisiana, 98% of PCL cases were diagnosed at age 18-65 with over 90% of them being human papillomavirus (HPV)-related. PCL women represent those who may be immunocompromised from the precancerous condition and thus more vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2. Most studies evaluating racial disparities for COVID-19 infection have only used data prior to vaccine availability. This study assessed disparities by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) in COVID-19 infections among working-age PCL women for pre- and post-COVID-19 vaccine availability. Louisiana women aged 18-65 with PCL diagnosed in 2009-2021 were linked with the Louisiana statewide COVID-19 database to identify those with positive COVID-19 test. Race/ethnicity was categorized as non-Hispanic white (NHW), non-Hispanic black (NHB), Hispanic, and others. The census tract SES quintiles were created based on American Community Survey estimates. Logistic regression was employed to assess the racial/ethnic and SES differences in COVID-19 infections. Of 14,669 eligible PCL women, 30% were tested COVID-19 positive. NHB had the highest percentage of COVID-19 infection (34.6%), followed by NHW (27.7%). The infection percentage was inversely proportional to SES, with 32.9% for women having the lowest SES and 26.8% for those with the highest SES. NHB women and those with lower SES had higher COVID-19 infection than their counterparts with an aOR of 1.37 (95% CI 1.25-1.49) and 1.21 (95% CI 1.07-1.37), respectively. In the pre-vaccine period, NHB and Hispanic women had higher odds of infection than NHW women. However, after the vaccine was implemented, the significant racial/ethnic and SES differences in COVID-19 infections still existed in PCL women residing in non-Greater New Orleans area. There are substantial variations in racial/ethnic and SES disparities in COVID-19 infections among working-age women with PCL, even after vaccine implementation. It is imperative to provide public health interventions and resources to reduce this unequal burden for this vulnerable population.