Disparities in SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Arab Americans Living in Southeast Michigan.

Abstract

COVID-19 has disproportionately affected racial and ethnic minority groups in the USA, nevertheless, there is little research regarding how it impacted the Arab American (ArA) population. In this retrospective study, we investigated potential disparities between ArA and Caucasian (CA) groups during the first 2 years of the pandemic. The study included 110,896 adult patients who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 at eight emergency departments (EDs) within a large health system in Southeast Michigan between March 1, 2020, and July 31, 2022. Univariate analysis revealed that ArA had greater odds (OR 2.16, 95% CI 2.03-2.29) of testing positive compared to CA and significantly lower odds (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.62-0.77) of subsequent hospitalization compared to CA. There were no significant differences in hospital mortality, 30-day ED revisit, or 30-day rehospitalization. After adjusting for age, gender, health insurance type, and a variety of co-morbidities, ArA had significantly higher odds of infection (adjusted OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.97-2.25) compared to CA, while there were no differences in other outcomes. Our study showed significantly higher risk of COVID infections in ArA and necessitates further research to understand factors contributing to this finding and measures to decrease the infection risk in this population in future pandemics.