Media release

From: American College of Physicians

Racial minorities more likely to become infected with COVID-19

An analysis of Kaiser Permanente members in Northern California early in the COVID-19 pandemic found that racial minorities were more likely than white patients to test positive for COVID-19. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers from Kaiser Permanente, The Permanente Medical Group, and Stanford Cancer Institute studied health records for 3.5 million patients in the Kaiser Health system, more than 91,000 of whom received a COVID-19 test between Feb. 1 and May 31, 2020. That data showed that Latino patients were nearly 4 times as likely as white patients to become infected with the virus, while Asian and Black patients were 2 times as likely to test positive for COVID-19 compared to white patients. The odds of hospitalization were also higher for Latino, Asian, and Black patients with COVID-19 than for white patients. However, the study did not find racial disparities in mortality among patients hospitalized after infection.

The researchers concluded that while race was a major factor in likelihood of infection, it contributed in a minor way to hospitalization, admission, and death. For those adverse outcomes, age was the major predictor. According to the authors, these findings reinforce that health systems should aim to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in their highest-risk communities by seeking to reduce transmission among the most vulnerable. Read the full text.