Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021;8(2):63-71.
doi: 10.1007/s40471-021-00267-4. Epub 2021 Mar 16.

Aging and COVID-19 in Minority Populations: a Perfect Storm

Tubanji Walubita  1 , Ariel Beccia  1 , Esther Boama-Nyarko  1 , Melissa Goulding  1 , Carly Herbert  1 , Jessica Kloppenburg  1 , Guadalupe Mabry  1 , Grace Masters  1 , Asli McCullers  1 , Sarah Forrester  1
Affiliations
Review

Aging and COVID-19 in Minority Populations: a Perfect Storm

Tubanji Walubita et al. Curr Epidemiol Rep. 2021.

Abstract

Purpose of review: COVID-19 is a major concern for the health and wellbeing of individuals worldwide. As COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to increase in the USA, aging Black and Hispanic populations have emerged as especially at-risk for increased exposure to COVID-19 and susceptibility to severe health outcomes. The current review discusses the weathering hypothesis and the influence of social inequality on the identified health disparities.

Recent findings: Aging minoritized populations have endured structural and social inequality over the lifecourse. Consequently, these populations experience weathering, a process that results in physiological dysregulation due to stress associated with persistent disadvantage. Through weathering and continued inequity, aging minoritized populations have an increased risk of exposure and poor health outcomes from COVID-19.

Summary: Current literature and available data suggests that aging minoritized persons experience high rates of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. The current review hypothesizes and supports that observed disparities are the result of inequalities that especially affect Black and Hispanic populations over the lifecourse. Future efforts to address these disparities should emphasize research that supports governments in identifying at-risk groups, providing accessible COVID-19-related information to those groups, and implementing policy that addresses the structural and social inequities that perpetuate current COVID-19 disparities.

Keywords: Aging; Black; COVID-19; Health disparities; Hispanic; This article is part of the Topical Collection on Epidemiology of Aging; Weathering.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of InterestThe authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Weathering and physiological dysregulation
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. COVID-19 overview and infection prevention and control priorities in non-US healthcare settings | CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/non-us-settings/overview/i.... Accessed 4 Feb 2021.
    1. COVID-19 map - Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html. Accessed 4 Feb 2021.
    1. COVID-19 provisional counts - weekly updates by select demographic and geographic characteristics. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm. Accessed 4 Feb 2021.
    1. COVID-19 hospitalization and death by race/ethnicity | CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-disc.... Accessed 4 Feb 2021.
    1. COVID-19 provisional counts - health disparities. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/health_disparities.htm. Accessed 4 Feb 2021.

LinkOut - more resources