Ada Kwan
UCSF, Department of Medicine
Nathan Lo
Stanford, Infectious Diseases
We propose to investigate the influence of economic, social, and environmental factors on COVID-19 disparities across the state of California and how these factors explain variations in the effectiveness of the state’s pioneering, equity-focused pandemic response. Beginning in 2020, California employed an area-based socioeconomic measure (ABSM) called “the Healthy Places Index” (HPI) at the core of its response to prioritize health equity. HPI combines 25 different social and economic characteristics for a given location into one measure that captures the opportunity to live a healthy life. What HPI provided was useful information for state and local health jurisdictions to identify communities that were expected to be the most negatively impacted by the pandemic, subsequently allocating more resources to such communities through county targeted equity investment plans and vaccine equity allocation strategies.
However, the influence of the different HPI components and other relevant factors, such as the prevalence of wildfires or levels of immigration, on disparities and how they may have contributed to the estimated successes of an equity approach remain unclear. Leveraging machine learning-based statistical methods, we will identify key factors driving variations with three different approaches:
- analyzing various ABSMs, including HPI, and their constituents,
- considering contextual factors identified by community stakeholders as having a significant impact on outcomes, and
- applying a combined approach.
By understanding the variation across the California geography and further highlighting the importance of a community-engagement approach with secondary data analysis, this study aims to discover whether dynamic strategies may work better to achieve equity in the future. While initial results of California’s equity-focused policy impacts show promise, achieving lasting equitable outcomes requires ongoing research and effort.
Collaborators:
- CA Dept of Public Health