Primary Submission Category: Race/Ethnicity
Racial disparity of the health preventive behaviors during the early COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Xiao Li Jae Man Park Jordan Mitchell Phillip Decker
Presenting Author: Xiao Li*
Background: Racial disparities in health status, health behaviors, and healthcare utilization have been widely discussed. Data indicates that minority groups are disproportionately affected by case and death from COVID-19. However, there are limited data on the disparity between race and ethnicity in health preventive behaviors about COVID-19.
Methods: We conducted an online survey from July through November 2020 to access the relationship between race/ethnicity and health preventive behavior, with the potential influence of other factors, such as socio-economic characteristics, in order to investigate the racial disparity of health preventive behaviors during the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic. The final sample included 717 valid participants. We developed 2-part regression models to assess whether health preventive behaviors differed by race and ethnicity.
Results: The results show that the respondents did not differ in using complementary or alternative medicine strategy and stay-at-home strategy for the COVID-19 prevention; however, Non-White respondents were more likely to practice social distancing, mask wearing, and hand washing strategy to prevent COVID-19, compared to their White counterparts.
Discussion: We found ethnicity can be a predictor of health preventive behaviors, in accordance with previous research. This study mainly shows three findings: 1) minorities were more likely to take health preventive behaviors, 2) there was a greater likelihood of health preventive behavior among people who had experienced COVID-19 related racial abuse, and 3) respondents experiencing depression due to the COVID-19 were more likely to practice health prevention measures. More effort will be needed to investigate the causes of these disparities in order to develop potential public health strategies with the aim of encouraging appropriate behaviors among communities, including both majority and minority communities.