BMJ Open Respiratory Research (Jul 2024)

Lack of racial and ethnic disparities in mortality in minority patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in a mid-Atlantic healthcare system

  • Jamie Perin,
  • Panagis Galiatsatos,
  • Nadia N Hansel,
  • Henry Michtalik,
  • Jocelyn Shubella,
  • Andi Shahu,
  • John W Jackson,
  • Brian Garibaldi,
  • Dapeng Yao,
  • Yanxun Xu,
  • Damani Piggott,
  • Oluwaseun Falade-Nwulia,
  • Harolyn M E Belcher,
  • Sherita Golden

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjresp-2024-002310
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1

Abstract

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Introduction In the USA, minoritised communities (racial and ethnic) have suffered disproportionately from COVID-19 compared with non-Hispanic white communities. In a large cohort of patients hospitalised for COVID-19 in a healthcare system spanning five adult hospitals, we analysed outcomes of patients based on race and ethnicity.Methods This was a retrospective cohort analysis of patients 18 years or older admitted to five hospitals in the mid-Atlantic area between 4 March 2020 and 27 May 2022 with confirmed COVID-19. Participants were divided into four groups based on their race/ethnicity: non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic white, Latinx and other. Propensity score weighted generalised linear models were used to assess the association between race/ethnicity and the primary outcome of in-hospital mortality.Results Of the 9651 participants in the cohort, more than half were aged 18–64 years old (56%) and 51% of the cohort were females. Non-Hispanic white patients had higher mortality (p<0.001) and longer hospital length-of-stay (p<0.001) than Latinx and non-Hispanic black patients.Discussion In this large multihospital cohort of patients admitted with COVID-19, non-Hispanic black and Hispanic patients did not have worse outcomes than white patients. Such findings likely reflect how the complex range of factors that resulted in a life-threatening and disproportionate impact of incidence on certain vulnerable populations by COVID-19 in the community was offset through admission at well-resourced hospitals and healthcare systems. However, there continues to remain a need for efforts to address the significant pre-existing race and ethnicity inequities highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic to be better prepared for future public health emergencies.