The Effect of County-Level Socioeconomic and Health Care Inequality on COVID-19 Infection and Mortality in the Southern and Southeastern United States

• Activity Number: 75 - SPEED: Data Challenge and SPAAC
• Type: Topic-Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 9, 2021 : 10:00 AM to 11:50 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Computing
• Author(s): Webb Williams* and Jackson Paul Barth and Guanqing Cheng and Ming Zhang and Hon Keung Tony Ng and Lynne Stokes
• Companies: Southern Methodist University and Southern Methodist University and Southern Methodist University and Southern Methodist University and Southern Methodist University and Southern Methodist University
• Keywords: Socioeconomic factors; Healthcare Inequality; COVID-19; County-Level; Southern and Southeastern United States

Abstract

Our project determines the socioeconomic and healthcare factors associated with high COVID-19 infection and mortality rates in both Southern and Southeastern United States. This analysis will provide government agencies with information to determine what communities need additional COVID-19 assistance, to identify counties that effectively control COVID-19, and to apply effective strategies on a broader scale. Our analysis will use data from 328 counties with a population more than 65,000 from 13 states. The demographic data includes 14 covariates and will be collected from American Community Survey (ACS). Data for infection and mortality rates by county will be collected from USAFACTS.org. We will create a new response variable to reflect the severity of the COVID-19, adjusting monthly infection and death rates based on how counties perform compared with national and statewide rates. We will use the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression to fit our model, which will allow us to understand which factors are significant. To effectively communicate our analysis results, we will create a dynamic dashboard using Tableau.