Disparities in COVID-19 testing and outcomes among Asian American and Pacific Islanders: an observational study in a large health care system

Abstract

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted racial and ethnic minorities in the United States, including Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (Asian Americans and NH/PIs). However, few studies have highlighted nor disaggregated these disparities by Asian Americans and NH/PIs ethnic subgroups. Methods This retrospective, cross-sectional observational study aimed to assess variation of Asian Americans and NH/PIs COVID-19 testing and outcomes compared to non-Hispanic Whites (NHW). The study utilized data from the electronic health records (EHR) and the COVID-19 Universal Registry for Vital Evaluations (CURVE) from all patients tested for SARS-CoV-2 (n = 556,690) at a large, health system in Northern and Central California between February 20, 2020 and March 31, 2021. Chi-square tests were used for testing differences in the severity of COVID-19 (hospitalization, ICU admission, death) and patient demographic and clinical characteristics across the Asian Americans and NH/PIs subgroups and NHW. Unadjusted and adjusted Odds Ratios (ORs) were estimated for measuring effect of race ethnicity on severity of COVID-19 using multivariable logistic regression. Results Of the entire tested population, 70,564/556,690 (12.7%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV-2 positivity of Asian subgroups varied from 4% in the Chinese and Korean populations, to 11.2%, 13.5%, and 12.5% for Asian Indian, Filipino, and “other Asian” populations respectively. Pacific Islanders had the greatest subgroup test positivity at 20.1%. Among Asian Americans and NH/PIs patients with COVID-19 disease, Vietnamese (OR = 2.06, 95% CI = 1.30–3.25), “Other Asian” (OR = 2.13, 95% CI = 1.79–2.54), Filipino (OR = 1.78, 95% CI = 1.34–2.23), Japanese (OR = 1.78, 95% CI = 1.10–2.88), and Chinese (OR = 1.73, 95% CI = 1.34–2.23) subgroups had almost double the odds of hospitalization compared to NHW. Pacific Islander (OR = 1.58, 95% CI = 1.19–2.10) and mixed race subgroups (OR = 1.55, 95% CI = 1.10–2.20) had more than one and a half times odds of hospitalization compared to NHW. Adjusted odds of ICU admission or death among hospitalized patients by different Asian subgroups varied but were not statistically significant. Conclusions Variation of COVID-19 testing and hospitalization by Asian subgroups was striking in our study. A focus on the Asian Americans and NH/PIs population with disaggregation of subgroups is crucial to understand nuances of health access, utilization, and outcomes among subgroups to create health equity for these underrepresented populations.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• COVID-19 Testing
• Asian Americans
• Ethnic and racial minorities
• Morbidity
• Hospitalization