An exploration of structural determinants driving racial disparities in COVID-19 deaths in Michigan

An exploration of structural determinants driving racial disparities in COVID-19 deaths in Michigan

Aim Racial disparities in COVID-19 death rates have largely been driven by structural racism in health, housing, and labor systems that place Black, Brown, and Indigenous populations at greater risk for COVID-19 exposure, transmission, and severe illness, compared to non-Hispanic White populations....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of public health Vol. 32; no. 2; pp. 221 - 228
Main Authors: Clark, Emily K., Voichoski, Erin N., Eisenberg, Alexa K., Mehdipanah, Roshanak
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-02-2024
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
COVID-19
Death
Diabetes mellitus
Disease transmission
Epidemiology
Fatalities
Geographical distribution
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Housing
Housing policy
Inequality
Local government
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Mortality
Original Article
Per capita
Policies
Population density
Property values
Public Health
Race factors
Racial differences
Racism
Real estate
Regression analysis
Regression models
United States > US
Michigan
Racial disparities
Taxable values
Structural racism
COVID-19 deaths
Michigan
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Summary:Aim Racial disparities in COVID-19 death rates have largely been driven by structural racism in health, housing, and labor systems that place Black, Brown, and Indigenous populations at greater risk for COVID-19 exposure, transmission, and severe illness, compared to non-Hispanic White populations. Here we examine the association between taxable property values per capita, an indicator influenced by historical and contemporary housing policies that have disproportionately impacted people of color, and COVID-19 deaths. Methods Taxable values serve as a proxy for fiscal health providing insight on the county’s ability to address imminent needs, including COVID-19 responses. Therefore, higher taxable values indicate local governments that are better equipped to deliver these public services. We used county-level data from the American Community Survey, the Michigan Community Financial Dashboard, The Atlantic’s COVID Tracking Project, and the Community Health Rankings and Roadmap for this cross-sectional study. Maps were created to examine the geographic distribution of cumulative death rates and taxable values per capita, and regression models were used to examine the association between the two while controlling for population density, age, education, race, income, obesity, diabetes, and smoking rates. Results Seventy-five counties were included. The mean taxable value per capita was $43,764.50 and the mean cumulative death rate was 171.86. Findings from the regression analysis showed that counties with higher taxable values were associated with lower COVID-19 death rates (B = –2.45, P < 0.001) Conclusion Our findings reveal a need to reevaluate current policies surrounding taxable property values in the state of Michigan, not solely for their inequitable impact on local governments' financial solvency and service quality, but also for their negative consequences for population health and racial health equity.
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ISSN:2198-1833
1613-2238
DOI:10.1007/s10389-022-01817-w