To curb the COVID-19 pandemic in nursing homes and other facilities, and to protect vulnerable populations, nursing homes may need to make deliberate efforts in communities with a higher concentration of racial and ethnic minorities, with particular care to reduce structural racism and address social risk factors among those populations.
That’s according to a recently published study in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. Nursing homes with a higher proportion of racial and ethnic minorities had higher rates of COVID-19 infection and related death than their counterparts serving predominantly white populations.
Additionally, the racial and ethnic make-up of the greater community in which a nursing home is located can be an indicator of the likelihood of COVID-19 cases and deaths in nursing facilities, according to the study. The authors said that historic structural racism and social factors contribute to barriers in access to care, limited access to education in these communities may contribute to the higher COVID-19 infection rates in the community.
