Tracking COVID-19 Inequities Across Jurisdictions Represented in the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC): The COVID-19 Health Inequities in BCHC Cities Dashboard

Abstract

Objectives. To describe the creation of an interactive dashboard to advance the understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic from an equity and urban health perspective across 30 large US cities that are members of the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC). Methods. We leveraged the Drexel‒BCHC partnership to define the objectives and audience for the dashboard and developed an equity framework to conceptualize COVID-19 inequities across social groups, neighborhoods, and cities. We compiled data on COVID-19 trends and inequities by race/ethnicity, neighborhood, and city, along with neighborhood- and city-level demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and built an interactive dashboard and Web platform to allow interactive comparisons of these inequities across cities. Results. We launched the dashboard on January 21, 2021, and conducted several dissemination activities. As of September 2021, the dashboard included data on COVID-19 trends for the 30 cities, on inequities by race/ethnicity in 21 cities, and on inequities by neighborhood in 15 cities. Conclusions. This dashboard allows public health practitioners to contextualize racial/ethnic and spatial inequities in COVID-19 across large US cities, providing valuable insights for policymakers. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(6):904-912. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306708).

FIGURE 1—

Example of Disparities in COVID-19 Mortality by Population Subgroup, Neighborhood, and City: Big Cities Health Coalition, 30 US Cities, September 14, 2021 Note. Age-adjusted rates were calculated using the 2000 US Standard Population as the referent population. Quartiles of % non-Hispanic Black persons by neighborhood were calculated for each city separately. Quartiles of % non-Hispanic Black persons by city were calculated for the whole sample. For individual and neighborhood comparisons, each dot represents the rate ratio in a specific city. For city comparisons, the dot represents the rate ratio comparing the top vs bottom quartile of % non-Hispanic Black persons across the 30 Big Cities Health Coalition cities included in this study.