Black patients have highest rate of flu-associated hospitalization in US
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Over the course of 10 influenza seasons from 2009-2010 through 2018-2019, Black patients had the highest rate of influenza-associated hospitalization in the United States, researchers reported in JAMA Network Open.
CDC epidemiologist Alissa C. O’Halloran, MSPH, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study using data from the Influenza-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network, which represents approximately 9% of the U.S. population.
They identified 131,908 people hospitalized with influenza during the 10 seasons and included 123,882 in the study, excluding patients if their race or ethnicity was not known or they had more than one race or ethnicity.
Overall, 62.3% of the patients were white and 53.8% were women. Additionally, 21.6% were Black, 10.3% were Hispanic, 5.1% were Asian or Pacific Islander and 0.7% were American Indian or Alaskan Native.
Stratified by age, ICU admission rates were higher among every Black population compared with the white population: among those aged 4 years or younger (RR, 2.21; 95% CI, 2.1-2.33), aged 5 to 17 years (RR, 1.99; 95% CI, 1.88-2.11), aged 18 to 49 years (RR, 2.52; 95% CI, 2.44-2.59), aged 50 to 64 years (RR, 2.5; 95% CI, 2.43-2.57), aged 65 to 74 years (RR, 1.74; 95% CI, 1.68-1.81), and aged 75 years or older (RR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02-1.09).
“Across all age groups, we found that Black persons had the highest rates of hospitalization and ICU admission, followed by American Indian or Alaska Native persons and Hispanic persons,” the authors wrote.
However, the largest disparity reported by the authors was among in-hospital deaths, which were higher among every Black population other than in those aged 75 years and older.
“Over multiple influenza seasons through 2015, vaccination coverage in the general population has been lower among Black and Hispanic adults compared with white adults, and Black and Hispanic children had lower rates of full vaccination coverage compared with white children; our findings in hospitalized patients of all ages showed similar disparities,” the authors wrote.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts