By using county-level data, researchers have found that different demographic groups are vulnerable to COVID-19 in different ways—often depending on their geographic location.

What they discovered was that not all of a particular race or ethnic population in the US is affected by the same factors, or face the same COVID-19 outcomes. By identifying associations between COVID mortality and social determinants of health, the researchers uncovered the specific ways that place has shaped how people experience the pandemic.

“We know it’s not just different demographics alone,” says Susan Paykin, a senior research manager at University of Chicago’s Center for Spatial Data Science. “It’s the structural, economic, and social factors that define those places that are influencing higher death rates and case rates.”

The findings came from a cross-sectional study of 3,142 counties in 50 US states and the District of Columbia—focusing on Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, and non-Hispanic white populations. The team looked at those different groups and their various social factors and whether they differed or were similar across urban, rural, and suburban counties.

According to the study, Black or African American groups with high mortality rates—particularly in the Southeast—were more vulnerable due to low socioeconomic status, high income inequality, limited access to quality health care, and severe housing problems. White populations who experienced high mortality rates—most often in the rural Midwest—are located mostly in counties with a high percentage of older populations, and who have limited access to quality health care.

The researchers observed that different minority groups were experiencing disproportionately high mortality rates during the pandemic—but the available data from the CDC doesn’t show much granularity below the state level as it relates to race and ethnicity.

Read the full article about COVID-19 mortality rates at Futurity.