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
. 2021;5(Suppl 1):S59-S62.
doi: 10.1080/23748834.2020.1792069. Epub 2020 Jul 29.

Structurally vulnerable neighborhood environments and racial/ethnic COVID-19 inequities

Rachel L Berkowitz  1   2 , Xing Gao  3 , Eli K Michaels  3 , Mahasin S Mujahid  3
Affiliations

Structurally vulnerable neighborhood environments and racial/ethnic COVID-19 inequities

Rachel L Berkowitz et al. Cities Health. 2021.

Abstract

Preliminary evidence suggests that the experience of the novel coronavirus is not shared equally across geographic areas. Findings in the United States suggest that the burden of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality may be hardest felt in disadvantaged and racially segregated places. Deprived neighborhoods are disproportionately populated by people of color, the same populations that are becoming sicker and dying more often from COVID-19. This commentary examines how structurally vulnerable neighborhoods contribute to racial/ethnic inequities in SARS-COV-2 exposure and COVID-19 morbidity and mortality and considers opportunities to intervene through place-based initiatives and the implementation of a Health in All Policies strategy.

Keywords: COVD-19; neighborhoods; racial/ethnic health inequities.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Conceptual framework for pathways through which neighborhoods, shaped by structural racism, may contribute to racial/ethnic inequities in SARS-COV-2 exposure and COVID-19 morbidity and mortality
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bailey ZD, Krieger N, Agénor M, Graves J, Linos N, & Bassett MT (2017). Structural racism and health inequities in the USA: Evidence and interventions. The Lancet, 389(10077), 1453–1463. 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30569-X - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barber S, Diez Roux AV, Cardoso L, Santos S, Toste V, James S, Barreto S, Schmidt M, Giatti L, & Chor D (2018). At the intersection of place, race, and health in Brazil: Residential segregation and cardio-metabolic risk factors in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil). Social Science & Medicine, 199, 67–76. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.05.047 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Braithwaite R, & Warren R (2020). The African American Petri Dish. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Ahead of Print, Volume 31(2), 12. - PubMed
    1. Burns K (2020, May 8). Social distancing arrests target people of color. Vox. https://www.vox.com/identities/2020/5/8/21252091/social-distancing-arres...
    1. Chen JT, & Krieger N (2020). Revealing the unequal burden of COVID-19 by income, race/ethnicity, and household crowding: US county vs ZIP code analyses. Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies Working Paper Series, 19(1). https://tinyurl.com/y7v72446