Study: Look beyond geography to identify smaller at-risk groups for pandemic relief

Delivering COVID-19 vaccines and other pandemic relief to certain small ethnic populations in California may be a particular challenge for a somewhat ironic reason: Many members of those groups do not live in neighborhoods that have been identified as being highly vulnerable to virus transmission.A newUCLA study looked at five ethnic groups — American Indians, Pacific Islanders, Cambodians, Filipinos and Koreans — which, current data suggests, have higher-than-average rates of COVID-19 infections or deaths.“The data we’ve been compiling show that Pacific Islander and other smaller Asian groups are two to three times more likely than non-Latinx white workers to be essential workers, who are at a higher risk of being exposed during a pandemic,” saidNinez Ponce, director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and principal investigator of the California Health Interview Survey. “But they have received less attention because their numbers are fewer, and this is why we are promoting more ways to use data to address striking disparities.”The study, led byPaul Ong, director of the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, examined four data models that public policy and health policy officials typically rely upon to decide how to distribute resources.Those models, including one created by UCLA, are used by public agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration. But the research found that the mo...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news