Evaluating the Impact of COVID-19 on Native Americans

College of General Studies, Jamison, Gregg, Mentor, Poster Presentation, Saitis, Florin, School and College, Social Sciences & Business, Student

Florin Saitis, “Evaluating the Impact of COVID-19 on Native Americans”
Mentor: Gregg Jamison, Social Sciences & Business
Poster #82

COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus, and the global outbreak of coronavirus was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. As of 2024, there have been over 700 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and around 7 million reported deaths. Despite the global effects, Native Americans appear to be disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Exacerbated by health inequalities among Native Americans, who constitute 2.6% of the U.S. population, COVID-19 has had a 3.5 times greater incidence rate among Native Americans than non-Hispanic white people. Native Americans have often been excluded from national reports because of a lack of statistical significance in data analyses, which has led the group to be overlooked in terms of healthcare funding. Recent studies efforts to reduce racial misclassification only utilized linkage through the Indian Health Service (IHS) patient registration database, and Native Americans who are not part of a non-federally recognized tribe that is not eligible for IHS are not represented in many studies. Despite the challenges to analyzing the impact of diseases on Native Americans, this population has numerous documented health disparities, such as lower life expectancy, disproportionate poverty rates, triple the rate of type 2 diabetes-related deaths, and higher rates of kidney disease and many types of cancers. Understanding the causes and impacts of health inequities in Native American populations, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic, can help lead a culturally responsive public health effort that creates satisfactory and equitable healthcare and public health infrastructure for Native Americans. Ranging from historical injustices and identity policies to present socioeconomic status, recurrent marginalization, and health behaviors and disease, there are a myriad of factors that explain why COVID-19 has impacted Native Americans more than any other group in the U.S.