COVID-19 Among American Indian and Alaska Native Persons — 23 States, January 31–July 3, 2020

Details

• Personal Author:
  Hatcher, Sarah M. ; Agnew-Brune, Christine ; Anderson, Mark ; Zambrano, Laura D. ; Rose, Charles E. ; Jim, Melissa A. ; Baugher, Amy ; Liu, Grace S. ; Patel, Sadhna V. ; Evans, Mary E. ; Pindyck, Talia ; Dubray, Christine L. ; Rainey, Jeanette J. ; Chen, Jessica ; Sadowski, Claire ; Winglee, Kathryn ; Penman-Aguilar, Ana ; Dixit, Amruta ; Claw, Eudora ; Parshall, Carolyn ; Provost, Ellen ; Ayala, Aurimar ; Gonzalez, German ; Ritchey, Jamie ; Davis, Jonathan ; Warren-Mears, Victoria ; Joshi, Sujata ; Weiser, Thomas ; Echo-Hawk, Abigail ; Dominguez, Adrian ; Poel, Amy ; Duke, Christy ; Ransby, Imani ; Apostolou, Andria ; McCollum, Jeffrey
• Corporate Authors:
  CDC COVID-19 Response Team. ; Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health. ; Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. ; Albuquerque Area Southwest Tribal Epidemiology Center. ; Alaska Native Epidemiology Center. ; California Tribal Epidemiology Center. ; Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Epidemiology Center. ; Inter Tribal Council of Arizona. Tribal Epidemiology Center. ; Northwest Tribal Epidemiology Center. ; Portland Area Indian Health Service. ; Urban Indian Health Institute. ; United South and Eastern Tribes. Tribal Epidemiology Center. ; United States Indian Health Service. ; SciMetrika.
• Description:
  What is already known about this topic? American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) persons appear to be disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic; however, limited data are available to quantify the disparity in COVID-19 incidence, severity, and outcomes among AI/AN persons compared with those among other racial/ethnic groups.
  
  What is added by this report? In 23 states with adequate race/ethnicity data, the cumulative incidence of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 among AI/AN persons was 3.5 times that among non-Hispanic white persons. A large percentage of missing data precluded Analysis of some characteristics and outcomes.
  
  What are the implications for public health practice? Adequate health care and public health infrastructure resources are needed to support a culturally responsive public health effort that sustains the strengths of AI/AN communities. These resources would facilitate the collection and reporting of more complete case report data to support evidence-based public health efforts.
  
  Although non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) persons account for 0.7% of the U.S. population,* a recent Analysis reported that 1.3% of coronaVirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases reported to CDC with known race and ethnicity were among AI/AN persons (1). To assess the impact of COVID-19 among the AI/AN population, reports of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases during January 22†–July 3, 2020 were analyzed. The Analysis was limited to 23 states§ with >70% complete race/ethnicity information and five or more laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases among both AI/AN persons (alone or in combination with other races and ethnicities) and non-Hispanic white (white) persons. Among 424,899 COVID-19 cases reported by these states, 340,059 (80%) had complete race/ethnicity information; among these 340,059 cases, 9,072 (2.7%) occurred among AI/AN persons, and 138,960 (40.9%) among white persons. Among 340,059 cases with complete patient race/ethnicity data, the cumulative incidence among AI/AN persons in these 23 states was 594 per 100,000 AI/AN population (95% confidence interval [CI] = 203–1,740), compared with 169 per 100,000 white population (95% CI = 137–209) (rate ratio [RR] = 3.5; 95% CI = 1.2–10.1). AI/AN persons with COVID-19 were younger (median age = 40 years; interquartile range [IQR] = 26–56 years) than were white persons (median age = 51 years; IQR = 32–67 years). More complete case report data and timely, culturally responsive, and evidence-based public health efforts that leverage the strengths of AI/AN communities are needed to decrease COVID-19 Transmission and improve patient outcomes.
  
  Suggested citation for this article: Hatcher SM, Agnew-Brune C, Anderson M, et al. COVID-19 Among American Indian and Alaska Native Persons — 23 States, January 31–July 3, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. ePub: 19 August 2020
  
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  mm6934e1-H.pdf
  
  
• Subjects:
  Alaska Natives CoronaVirus Infections COVID-19 Healthcare Disparities Health Status Disparities Indians, North American Pandemics Pneumonia, Viral
• Source:
  MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2020; v. 69 Early Release
• Series:
  Weekly Report: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• ISSN:
  0149-2195 (print) ; 1545-861X (digital)
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Pages in Document:
  4 pdf pages
• Volume:
  69
• Collection(s):
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0e66e887b4967cacbec7e5a071a66cf4c710bb2297a31d0a50c1b959dbc51ce74a7a426c6ee335256ae1a9075f6f04045c8fda08c1eef5efeaf7ee076c35a2a1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/92230/cdc_92230_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 215.28 KB ]