Full Citation
Title: Measuring Infection and Mortality of COVID-19 among Arab-Americans
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2022
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.31552.00000
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: COVID-19 has had dierential eects across ethnicity and race in the United States. Though there is anecdotal evidence that the pandemic has hit Arab-American communities hard, there is limited data documenting infection and mortality rates specically for these communities. Rather, Arab-Americans are generally included in the White racial category for most publicly available data. I argue that this is masking the true impact of the pandemic on Arab-American communities given that these groups may be both more exposed to infection and have higher morbidity. I combine data on COVID infection and mortality at the county level with ACS data on the geographic distribution of Arab-Americans. I nd that infection and mortality rates for the White racial category are signicantly higher in neighborhoods with higher Arab-American population shares, even after controlling for socioeconomic factors. This suggests that infection and mortality rates are indeed higher for Arab-American communities than for Whites of European descent. I then explore potential explanations for this result and argue that underlying health conditions are the leading cause. This nding highlights the specic need for increased intervention in Arab-American communities. It also suggests that the observed racial gaps in COVID infection/mortality rates are likely being underestimated given that these numbers for the White category are being inated by the inclusion of Arab-Americans.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Foad, Hisham
Publisher: San Diego State University
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Health, Race and Ethnicity
Countries: