Amplified effect of social vulnerability on health inequality regarding COVID-19 mortality in the USA: the mediating role of vaccination allocation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Vaccination reduces the overall burden of COVID-19, while its allocation procedure may introduce additional health inequality, since populations characterized with certain social vulnerabilities have received less vaccination and been affected more by COVID-19. We used structural equation modeling to quantitatively evaluate the extent to which vaccination disparity would amplify health inequality, where it functioned as a mediator in the effect pathways from social vulnerabilities to COVID-19 mortality.

Methods

We used USA nationwide county (n = 3112, 99% of the total) level data during 2021 in an ecological study design. Theme-specific rankings of social vulnerability index published by CDC (latest data of 2018, including socioeconomic status, household compositi

SUBMITTER: Chen Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9675971 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature