Racial and Ethnic Disparities in HIV Diagnosis Rates by Social Determinants of Health at the Census Tract Level among Adults in the United States and Puerto Rico, 2021

• Published in: Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999)
• Main Authors: Kota, Krishna Kiran, Eppink, Samuel, Gant, Zanetta, Chesson, Harrell, McCree, Donna Hubbard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 04-10-2024
• ISSN: 1525-4135; 1944-7884; 1944-7884
• DOI: 10.1097/QAI.0000000000003541

To compare racial and ethnic disparities in HIV diagnosis rates among adults in census tracts with most disadvantaged vs advantaged levels of social determinants of health (SDOH).
In this ecological analysis, we used the National HIV Surveillance System data in 2021 and SDOH data from 2017-2021 American Community Survey. We measured racial and ethnic disparities stratified by sex in the most disadvantaged quartiles and advantaged quartiles for: 1) Poverty 2) Education level 3) Median household income and 4) Insurance coverage. We calculated 8 relative disparity measures (Black-to-White rate ratio [RR], Hispanic/Latino-to-White RR, Index of Disparity [ID], population-weighted ID, Mean Log Deviation, Theil Index, Population Attributable Proportion, Gini coefficient) and 4 absolute disparity measures (Black-to-White rate difference [RD], Hispanic/Latino-to-White RD, absolute ID, and population-weighted absolute ID).
Comparing the most disadvantaged quartiles to the most advantaged quartiles, all four absolute disparity measures decreased, but 7 of the 8 relative disparity measures increased: the median percentage decrease in the absolute measures for males and females respectively was 38.1% and 47.6% for poverty, 12.4% and 42.6% for education level, 43.6% and 44.0% for median household income, and 44.2% and 45.4% for insurance coverage. The median percentage increases for the relative measures for males and females respectively were 44.3% and 61.3% for poverty, 54.9% and 95.3% for education level, 19.6% and 90.0% for median household income, and 32.8% and 46.4% for insurance coverage.
Racial and ethnic disparities in the most disadvantaged and advantaged quartiles highlight the need for strategies addressing the root causes of disparities.