Racial, Ethnic, and Socioeconomic Disparities in COVID-19 Pandemic Worries

Racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic health disparities became evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores whether these disparities extend to the content of worries.

We surveyed 1,222 participants from three metropolitan New York City (NYC) based cohorts through telephone interviews conducted from March to September 2020. Worries were assessed using 37 dichotomous questionnaire items, and exploratory factor analysis derived ten categories of worry. Factor scores were analyzed in generalized linear mixed models to examine their associations with race/ethnicity and household income, adjusting for covariates.

The most prevalent worry items pertained to U.S. and world politics, American values, health concerns, and return to normalcy. Higher household income was associated with lower worry about economic needs, job/employment, and violence/victimization, while violence/victimization worries were strongly associated with Asian, Hispanic, Black, and multiracial or other race/ethnicity.

During early COVID-19, lower-income and minoritized race and ethnic groups were disproportionately affected by economic and violence/victimization worries, while other worries showed minor variations by income or race/ethnicity.