Table 1.
Summary of datasets assessed in this study. All datasets were mapped at the census tract level.
Fig 1.
COVID-19 and asthma in areas with high social and/or environmental vulnerability.
(A) High SVI was associated with higher average cumulative COVID-19 incidence rates early in the pandemic, whereas PM2.5 was associated with higher rates later in the pandemic. Cumulative COVID-19 incidence was elevated in areas of high Ozone at all points during the pandemic. (B) Asthma hospitalization as well as estimated asthma prevalence followed a similar pattern with higher rates of both being associated with high SVI and high Ozone. Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals; asterisks (*) indicate areas that are significantly higher than “All CTs” and pounds (#) indicate areas significantly lower than “All CTs” (p<0.05; T-test).
Table 2.
Spearman’s rho (correlation coefficient) for social and environmental vulnerability, asthma, and COVID-19.
With regards to COVID-19, strongest correlation was observed between the cumulative incidence during the first quarter of the pandemic in LA (Mar-Jun 2020) and the estimated prevalence of asthma, SVI due to minority status and language barriers, asthma hospitalization crude rate, and the percentile score for ozone levels. With regards to asthma, SVI due to socioeconomic status, minority status and language barriers, and overall SVI were also significantly correlated with both asthma hospitalization rate as well as the estimated prevalence.
Table 3.
Spearman’s rho (correlation coefficient) for specific social vulnerability factors, asthma and COVID-19.
Statistically significant correlations were observed between several vulnerability factors and cumulative COVID-19 incidence up to June 2020 (CV19 [3m]) and/or estimated prevalence of asthma (EPV Asthma). However, the factors that showed moderately strong correlation coefficients with both health indicators were percent minority populations and percent households without a vehicle.
Fig 2.
Spatial analysis of social and environmental vulnerability, asthma and COVID-19.
Darker colors for each measure indicate higher percentile ranks. Most counties in LA had census tracts with SVI (A) above the median. Ozone (B) and PM2.5 (C) were higher in the northwest and southeastern parts of the state. Indoor environmental quality concerns (mostly in the form of mold complaints) were also reported from all over the state (D). Estimated prevalence of asthma (E) was often above the median in census tracts located in the northwestern, western, southern and southeastern parishes. At the 12-month time point, cumulative COVID-19 incidence rates (F) were higher in the northern, northwestern and southeastern parts of the state.
Fig 3.
Identifying census tracts with EJ concerns.
Census Tracts were defined as being of EJ concern if the Overall SVI was at or above the 75th percentile, along with at least one of the environmental variables (RHI, PM2.5 or Ozone) at or above the 75th percentile for the state (A). Map shows the number of the CTs of EJ concern by Parish (B). Most of them were located in the major urban areas, with a few spread across the rural areas of the state.
Fig 4.
Identifying EJ communities with high COVID-19 and asthma burdens.
(A) Of the 137 census tracts that were deemed of EJ concern, 75 (55%) had estimated prevalence of asthma at or above the 75th percentile for the state. The majority of these CTs were located in the major urban areas, with others spread across the more rural areas of the state (B). A similar pattern was observed for CTs that were of concern for EJ, asthma as well as COVID-19. About a third of the 15 EJ CTs deemed areas of concern for both asthma and COVID-19 were located in the northwestern part of the State in Caddo Parish (C).