Abstract:
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COVID-19 pandemic mortality data have long established that, broadly speaking, males and certain racial/ethnic minority groups have borne a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 mortality in the U.S. However, less is known about the relative population-level COVID-19 mortality burden across race/ethnicity-sex strata across different U.S. geographic regions and over time. Using official mortality data from the CDC, we calculate (1) national age-specific and age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates across race/ethnicity-sex strata for 2020, (2) state-level age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates across race/ethnicity-sex strata for 2020, and (3) weekly national age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates across race/ethnicity-sex strata for 2020. Our results demonstrate that within categories of race/ethnicity, male mortality rates are greater than female mortality rates, regardless of age, state, or time interval. However, female mortality rates in certain racial/ethnic minority groups have exceeded those of male non-Hispanic White males at various points of the pandemic. Our findings add to the body COVID-19 scientific literature that indicate both innate biological sex differences and factors related to social determinants of health contribute to shaping population-level patterns in COVID-19 mortality outcomes across subgroups defined by race/ethnicity and sex.
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