1. Frontline work and racial disparities in social and economic pandemic stressors during the first COVID‐19 surge
- Author
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Haro‐Ramos, Alein Y, Brown, Timothy T, Deardorff, Julianna, Aguilera, Adrian, Porter, Keshia M Pollack, and Rodriguez, Hector P
- Subjects
Policy and Administration ,Human Society ,Behavioral and Social Science ,Good Health and Well Being ,Decent Work and Economic Growth ,United States ,Humans ,Child ,COVID-19 ,Pandemics ,Child Health ,Ethnicity ,Linear Models ,determinants of health ,health equity ,population health ,racial ,ethnic differences in health and health care ,social determinants of health ,socioeconomic causes of health ,racial/ethnic differences in health and health care ,Public Health and Health Services ,Health Policy & Services ,Health services and systems ,Policy and administration - Abstract
ObjectiveTo assess the magnitude of racial-ethnic disparities in pandemic-related social stressors and examine frontline work's moderating relationship on these stressors.Data sourcesEmployed Californians' responses to the Institute for Governmental Studies (IGS) poll from April 16-20, 2020, were analyzed. The Pandemic Stressor Scale (PSS) assessed the extent to which respondents experienced or anticipated problems resulting from the inability to pay for basic necessities, job instability, lacking paid sick leave, unavailability of childcare, and reduced wages or work hours due to COVID-19.Study designMixed-effects generalized linear models estimated (1) racial-ethnic disparities in pandemic stressors among workers during the first COVID-19 surge, adjusting for covariates, and (2) tested the interaction between race-ethnicity and frontline worker status, which includes a subset of essential workers who must perform their job on-site, to assess differential associations of frontline work by race-ethnicity.Data collectionThe IGS poll data from employed workers (n = 4795) were linked to the 2018 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Social Vulnerability Index at the zip code level (N = 1068).Principal findingsThe average PSS score was 37.34 (SD = 30.49). Whites had the lowest PSS score (29.88, SD = 26.52), and Latinxs had the highest (50.74, SD = 32.61). In adjusted analyses, Black frontline workers reported more pandemic-related stressors than White frontline workers (PSS = 47.73 vs. 36.96, p
- Published
- 2023