Ecological Analysis of the Temporal Trends in the Association of Social Vulnerability and Race/Ethnicity with County-Level COVID-19 Incidence and Outcomes in the United States

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected the socially vulnerable and minority communities in the U.S. initially, but the temporal trends during the year-long pandemic remain unknown.

Objective

We examined the temporal association between the county-level Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), a percentile-based measure of social vulnerability to disasters, its subcomponents and race/ethnic composition with COVID-19 incidence and mortality in the U.S. in the year starting in March 2020.

Methods

Counties (n=3091) with ≥ 50 COVID-19 cases by March 6 ^th , 2021 were included in the study. Associations between SVI (and its subcomponents) and county level racial composition with the incidence and death per capita were assessed by fitting a negative-binomial mixed-effects model. This model was also used to examine potential time varying associations between weekly number of cases/deaths and SVI or racial composition. Data was adjusted for percentage of population aged ≥65 years, state level testing rate, comorbidities using the average Hierarchical Condition Category (HCC) score, and environmental factors including average fine particulate matter (PM _2.5 ), temperature and precipitation.

Results

Higher SVI, indicative of greater social vulnerability, was independently associated with higher COVID-19 incidence (adjusted incidence rate ratio [IRR] per-10 percentile increase:1.02, (95% CI 1.02, 1.03, p<0.001), and death per capita (1.04, (95% CI 1.04, 1.05, p<0.001). SVI became an independent predictor of incidence starting from March 2020, but this association became weak or insignificant by the winter, a period that coincided with a sharp increase in infection rates and mortality, and when counties with higher proportion of White residents were disproportionately represented (“third wave”). By Spring of 2021, SVI was again a predictor of COVID-19 outcomes. Counties with greater proportion of Black residents also observed similar temporal trends COVID-19-related adverse outcomes. Counties with greater proportion of Hispanic residents had worse outcomes throughout the duration of the analysis.

Conclusion

Except for the winter “third wave” when majority White communities had the highest incidence of cases, counties with greater social vulnerability and proportionately higher minority populations, experienced worse COVID-19 outcomes.

Article Summary/Strengths & Limitations

• Examined full 12 months of county-level data in the US delineating the temporal trends in the association between social vulnerability index and COVID-19 outcomes

• Investigated COVID-19 outcomes in predominantly Black and Hispanic communities in comparison to White communities in the US

• Analysis is ecological, descriptive, and on the county-level rather than on an individual level

• Analysis adjusted for confounders including county level age ≥ 65, comorbidities, and environmental factors

• Analysis limited to the US