A University of South Florida (USF) epidemiology associate professor discovered associations
between COVID-19 mortality rates and socioeconomic position, gender, ethnicity and
race that reveal an urgent need to implement population-based infection control efforts,
especially for those in low socioeconomic positions (SEP).
In collaboration with a team of epidemiologists from the COVKID Project, Associate Professor Jason Salemi launched a national investigation into COVID-19
deaths in 2020 with data released by the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics.
The study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,
analyzed nearly 70,000 adults, ages 25 to 64, who died from COVID-19. The team found
68% of COVID-19 deaths the first year of the pandemic were low SEP adults employed
in labor, service and retail jobs that require on-site attendance and prolonged close
contact with others.
“The degree to which it takes a toll on communities is very unevenly distributed and
we wanted to call attention to that issue,” Salemi said.
The National Center for Health Statistics uses one’s level of education as a measure of socioeconomic status because it is considered to be a more stable indicator of SEP over time. In tandem,
the team categorized each person’s SEP by their level of education – low SEP adults
had no education beyond high school, intermediate SEP had at least one year of college
attendance and high SEP adults had at minimum a bachelor’s degree.
The findings reveal a person’s level of education is strongly associated with occupation
segregation – with the majority of low SEP adults employed in working-class jobs across
all gender, race and ethnicity groups in the United States.
Historically, data shows the working class experiences disproportionate exposure risks and increased
burden of disease.
COVID-19 proved no different. Salemi and the team confirmed hazardous conditions of
work, like working in close proximity with others, were primary drivers of disparities
in COVID-19 mortality rates.
Elevated infection risks are amplified across multiple social environmental scales
for working-class adults, especially when compared to high SEP workers who are more
likely to have fewer exposure risks, options to work remotely, paid sick leave and
better access to quality health care.
“If we were to immediately heed the calls to return to ‘normal’ and stop worrying
about community spread of the virus, there are certain subsets and members of our
community that are going to suffer way more so than other members – and these people
have already borne the disproportioned brunt of this pandemic,” Salemi said.
Since 2020, about 78% of people in the United States have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine,
but the number of COVID-19 cases is trending upward once again. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are
asking people to practice prevention strategies based on their county COVID-19 Community Levels to protect high risk populations.
Salemi’s study shows the mortality rate of low SEP adults is five times higher when
compared to high SEP adults, and the mortality rate of intermediate SEP adults is
two times higher. White women make up the largest population group considered high
SEP. In contrast, nearly 60% of Hispanic men are in a low SEP. When compared, the
mortality rate of low SEP Hispanic men is 27 times higher than high SEP white women.
As a result, Salemi says the most urgent implication of this study points to immediate
actions needed to protect the working class from infection by strengthening federal
and state labor laws, empowering the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration,
adopting safety and health hazard policies and allowing unions to organize for greater protections for worker safety.
Salemi hopes to expand on this study with mortality data from 2021 and beyond but
knows the message will remain the same: “Return to normal” does not mean the same
thing for everyone.
