18 minute read
COVID-19 Year 2: Impact on Black American Women
Advertisement
COVID-19 YEAR 2 Impact on Black American Women
According to The National Library of Medicine, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a spiraling impact on the African American (Black) community, particularly African American (Black) women. Epidemiological data show that Black communities are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 virus, resulting in higher morbidity, mortality, and pair health outcome rates than other races and nationalities (Chandelier et al., 2021). Since the worldwide crisis was declared, Black women have also faced health and social determinant challenges during this unfamiliar time (Walter et al., 2021). These challenges have led African American women to experience adversity in their overall health and well-being. The systemic racism and marginalization history of Black women has increased personal and family health concerns about contracting the virus. These unprecedented issues have further resulted in increased financial, physical, emotional, and mental challenges for Black women due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, we released our publication Surviving & Thriving COVID-19 Pandemic Survival Guide for Black Women and Their Families to share the science; lead the call to wear masks; and help equip Black women to protect themselves, their families, and their communities. Released before vaccines were widely available, our culturally tailored, science-based pandemic survival guide told the story of how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting us, Black women, and empowers us to take actions that keep us healthy, safe, and resilient. The guide described the scope of the health, economic, and social impacts; of the pandemic; provided practical tips and resources that Black women can use to mitigate the severity of those impacts, and called on policymakers to account with lists of concrete recommendations for addressing our needs and ending the disparities we experience. We knew what it meant to be Black women in this country, at that moment. And in the second year of the pandemic, despite vaccines and on-and-off mask mandates, we know the stakes are still high, and the consequences are literally life or death. The COVID-19 and Black Women Year 2 Snapshot below provides concise findings on how the COVID-19 pandemic financially, physically, emotionally, and mentally impacted women of color, and how Black Women's Health Imperative can support Black women during these unprecedented times. The data collection focus that supports this snapshot is workplace inequity, maternal health, HIV, and chronic illnesses such as diabetes that have impacted women of color during the global pandemic.
1
The World Health Organization (WHO) first declared the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic on March 11, 2020, impacting millions (Mayo Clinic, 2022). The Pandemic has taken an extreme toll on the mental health of individuals of every age, nationality, and race. According to Baylor University (2021), a prominent community whose mental health has been severely negatively impacted is African American women. Research from Care’s Rapid Gender Analysis (2021) shows that the mortality risk of COVID-19 for men has been double the number for women—yet the pandemic has impacted women’s mental health more than men's. Chronic stress and worry has caused different mental health challenges and difficulties for Black women. Being mandated to isolate causes torment for any person. The mental health challenges of Black women have increased substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, 20% of people who require mental health issues do not have access to care (PubMed, 2020). It is imperative now more than ever for women to have the ability to prioritize self-care and have reliable access to mental healthcare. What can be done?
Access to healthcare is essential in improving mental health challenges for Black women. Some Black women fall into a vulnerable population and may need support from local or non-profit programs such as BWHI to assist in finding access to healthcare plans and services. At BWHI, we believe that Black women deserve and should have access to quality care. With a focus on helping the minority group access Affordable Healthcare-ACA, BWHI created the campaign #EnrollHer20, informing and assisting Black women in health insurance open enrollment.
Considering ESSENCE’s Impact of COVID-19 on Black Women study, African American women have been affected by this global disaster differently than other populations. The study found that Black women:
67%
were more concerned of contracting COVID-19 themselves.
80%
were more concerned about spreading the virus to their relatives.
24%
knew someone who died from the virus.
44%
personally knew individuals who had COVID-19.
64%
stated the pandemic negatively impacted their emotional well-being and (63%) their mental health.
43%
stated that the pandemic negatively affected their physical health. 34% of Black women declared that the pandemic has harmed family ties.
83%
intend to mend a family relationship after the pandemic.
2
COVID-19 Pandemic Affect on Black Women Economic and Financial Security
The mental challenges that African American women have experienced and currently face during the pandemic created other barriers to the minority group’s overall health and well-being. Black women face significant obstacles in achieving success and experience more disparities in jobs and wages than other populations. According to a Georgia Budget and Policy Institute study, Black women are two times more likely to live in poverty than Caucasian women. Research has also shown that Black women earn significantly fewer wages than Caucasian men. Consider another study conducted by The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute: Unequal Recovery: How the Covid-19 Pandemic has Impacted Economic Security for Black and Latino Women, comparing Georgian Black women’s wages and economic disparities to those of white men in the state of Georgia during and post the global pandemic. According to the 2019 data collected, Georgian women of color who work full-time earn 63 cents less compared to every dollar paid to men. In 2022, the gender wage gap has continued for African American women not just by state, but nationally. Data findings from the National Partnership for Women and Families (2022) show that the median yearly salary for a woman who works full time is $50,982, while the median yearly wage for a man who works full time is $61,417. The January 2022 data show that women in the United States earn 83 cents for every dollar paid to men, resulting in an annual gender wage gap of roughly $10,000. Women of color are typically the head of the household, so to continuously experience unequal financial earnings compared to other populations results in sometimes daily questioning and choosing priorities for those they love and care for.
55% 52%
of Black women foresee a negative financial impact due to the pandemic. Black women shared that the pandemic has caused a decline and has negatively affected their overall work efforts.
Additionally, women of color who owned a business saw a 70% financial decline from lack of supplies and products from delays and shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other factors in the continuous gender wage gaps and financial burdens African American women face during this precedent time occur from: • The broken job markets • Underrepresentation from employers • A lack of unemployment access. • Lack of sick leave and paid time off during the world disaster • Unequal job offering compared to other populations
The pandemic spotlighted the lack of resources for Black women and how they suffered when impacted by underrepresentation, layoffs, and furloughs. The article “OnTheMargins: Economic Security for Women of Color Through the Coronavirus Pandemic and Beyond” found that Black women only had 60% of paid sick time through their employers during the pandemic. For other Black women who experienced furloughs or layoffs, do to ineligibility for unemployment insurance caused financial challenges for households. Khalfani (2021), found that Black women received 15% less in wages due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Further supporting research found that many Black women who worked in occupations including but not limited to hospitality and retail were impacted the most during the global disaster from a decline or loss in wages (Sims, 2021). During the current recovery stage of the pandemic, Black women are going back to work. Job opportunities are proiferating, but women of color are not landing quality employment compared to other populations (Sims, 2021). As a result, the lack of economic and financial sustainability has caused an upward spiral of disruption and slower recouping for Black women from the global disaster. What are we doing at BWHI to help ease this challenge?
Workplace equity is a significant challenge that has and continues to affect women of color around the nation. At Black Women’s Health Imperative, we developed the BWHI Fair Work Initiative, a national workplace equity and anti-racism initiative to better the health and wellness of Black women, particularly their experiences in the workplace. BWHI FAIR WORK
3
COVID-19 Pandemic Black Women and Healthcare Challenges
Mental health and financial challenges are not the only health disparities African American women faced during the pandemic. There has been a decline in overall health outcomes for women of color. Specific health disparities that impact women of color are but are not limited to: • Maternal and mortality deaths • Chronic disease challenges such as diabetes • A lack of support for Black women with HIV
Maternal and Mortality Deaths
A new report by Reuters found that the maternal death of Black women has increased during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to previous years. The report found that Black women’s likelihood to die during or shortly after labor was triple that of white women in the first year of the global pandemic (Reuter, 2022). A data report by the National Center for Health Statistics found that maternal deaths increased by 14% to 861 in 2020 from 754 in 2019 (Reuter, 2022). Also included, The National Center for Health Statistics report found that the maternal death rate in 2020 among Black women was 2.9 times higher than white women, compared to a 2.5 increase in 2018-2019 (Reuter, 2022).
Further data findings showed that in 2020, one-third of pregnant and new mothers who passed away were women of color (Reuter, 2022). This number is astonishing because women of color only make up 13% of the U.S. population (Reuter, 2022).
Diabetes Affect on Black Women
During the Pandemic BWHI is committed to reducing the burden of type 2 diabetes (T2D) on the health and lives of Black women. This drove our recent release of our BWHI National Diabetes Agenda. Our policy agenda focuses primarily on T2D, which affects one in every four Black women ages 55 and older and one in 10 people in the US general population. Diabetes has become a silent plague for Black women, and the illness challenges have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In January 2021, the University of Mississippi Medical Center conducted a study on the impact of COVID-19 on the African Americans community, including specific data of African American women. According to the lead researcher, Dr. Osagie Ebekozien, an assistant professor of population health at the John D. Bower School of Population Health, hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 increased for Black women with Type 1 diabetes due to the worldwide pandemic.
The data collected found that Black communities had a four-time increased risk of developing diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). DKA is a severe condition that raises blood sugar and insult levels for patients with Type 1 diabetes (Cummins, 2021). Research has found that viruses such as COVID-19 evoke DKA, which increases the chances of a coma or even death for Type 1 diabetic patients (Cummins, 2021). The global pandemic has raised diabetes challenges for Black women. During the recovery stages, programs and national advocacy will be needed to help lower the barrier. Everyone across the nation was mandated to quarantine and has been impacted due to the global pandemic: in other communities, the COVID-19 virus negatively impacted populations such as women of color with HIV. Lolly (2021) reported that the first HIV cases occurred more than four decades ago. Since the first reporting and declaring the global pandemic, over 1 million individuals with HIV in the United States have been experiencing progressive barriers in the lack of HIV/AIDS medication and overall health treatments (Lolly, 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic has also increased the risk of death for women of color with HIV. Research findings in 2019 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state that there was a likelihood that Black
Black Women with HIV During the COVID-19 Pandemic
women were at 14.5 times a risk of dying from HIV than white women. A New York study in Jama Network found that more women with HIV were hospitalized and died of COVID-19 compared to women without HIV. As a result, the lack of access to healthcare and social resources shows disparities in social determinants of health for all, especially women of color with HIV. According to “The social determinants of health: it’s time to consider the causes of the causes,” social determinants of health (SDoH) are the conditions where one is born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of overall health, quality-of-life outcomes, and risk factors. When one’s social determinates are affected, it causes challenges to an individual’s overall health. The COVID-19 pandemic has restricted health and social access, requiring more advocacy and support to improve women’s health outcomes.
– Jallicia Lolly, Washington Post
A significant challenge that has and continues to affect women of color around the nation is a decline in health outcomes and overall well-being. Health disparities have led to an increase in adverse health outcomes that have impacted African American women. At Black Women’s Health Imperative, we developed the All of Us Research Program to help understand why Black women get sick and ways to stay healthy. Black women’s data should be included in research to create medical treatments unique to Black women. At BWHI, we understand that research will be the future for improving health outcomes for all,
4
COVID-19 Pandemic Preventative Care
According to an article by Clinical Psychological Science, people of color experience higher life burdens and heath interference due to the COVID-19 pandemic than other populations. In the report, the research found that: • 44% of African Americans vs. 38% of Caucasian Americans experienced financial loss due to the pandemic (Lopez et al., 2020). • In February of 2021, a survey found that 64% of African Americans reported unintentional changes in weight and 76% reported undesired changes in sleep patterns (American Psychological
Association, 2021). • 54% of African Americans vs. 44% of
Caucasian Americans reported not feeling comfortable going back to living normally before the pandemic. • 57% of African Americans vs. 47% of Caucasian Americans reported feeling anxious about adjusting to inperson exchanges after the pandemic concludes (American Psychological
Association, 2021) • The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) reported that African
Americans had higher anxiety or depressive symptoms rates of 39.8% from August 2021 to January 2021 vs. 35.4% of Caucasian Americans (Vahratian et al., 2021). Although the African American community has faced significant stress and health challenges due to the pandemic, African American women have been incorporating preventative efforts in handling life stressors due to the world crisis. Consider the study by Brown et al. (2021) for the National Library of Medicine that conducted an experiment on women of color to better understand the life experiences and burdens that arose due to the pandemic. The data collected is intended to be utilized for future interventions and provide coping strategies to reduce stress levels for African American women during current and future world crises.
There was a high theme of participants engaging in active coping (problem and emotion-focused) by incorporating the following coping focuses: • Health and wellbeing behaviors • Virtual social support • Religious practices
Black American women are proven resilient and will continue to valiantly cope with life and health stressors brought on by the COVID-19 Pandemic. And as Black women and our community face new barriers to reproductive justice and achieving well-being, our mission has never been more critical. BWHI will continue to advocate in the halls of Congress, use evidence-based strategies, and invest in bold programs to improve the health of Black women.
What are we doing at BWHI to help Back women with more preventative care efforts?
Preventative services are essential in maintaining overall health and well-being, especially for Black women. At Black Women’s Health Imperative, we developed campaigns such as Reclaim Your Wellness and P.O.W.E.R. of SURE to raise awareness for preventative services needed for Black women. Black Women’s Health Imperative and HealthyWomen launched the Reclaim Your Wellness campaign to raise awareness of obesity as a national health crisis in a manner that is free of stigma, judgment, and bias. The campaign’s focus is to provide education on living a healthier life. The P.O.W.E.R. of SURE is a national campaign designed to raise awareness of Black women’s disparities faced for mammography screening. The program is in partnership with Hologic, Inc. (Nasdaq: H.O.L.X.), an innovative medical technology company primarily focused on improving women’s health, and RAD-AID, a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring equal access to radiology health services for medically underserved communities.
References
1. “On the margins: Economic Security for Women of
Color Through The Coronavirus Crisis and Beyond” - womenswealthgap.org. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://womenswealthgap.org/wp-content/ uploads/2021/08/OnTheMargins_DDerbigny.pdf. 2. “Black Women and Covid-19: The Need for
Targeted Mental ... (n.d.).” Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/ abs/10.1177/1473325020973349. 3. Camardelle, A. (2021, March 18). “Women-Powered
Prosperity.” Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://gbpi.org/womenpowered-prosperity-report/. 4. Chandler R; Guillaume D; Parker AG; Mack A; Hamilton
J; Dorsey J; Hernandez ND; (n.d.). “The Impact of
Covid-19 Among Black Women: Evaluating Perspectives and Sources of Information.” Ethnicity & Health.
Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/33153287/ 5. Chinn, J. J., Martin, I. K., & Redmond, N. (2021,
February). “Health Equity Among Black Women in the
United States.” Journal of Women’s Health (2002).
Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/pmc/articles/PMC8020496/#B66. 6. “Covid-19 and the ‘Strong Black Woman.’” Gender
Policy Report. (2020, October 19). Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://genderpolicyreport.umn.edu/covid19-and-the-strong-black-woman/. 7. “Covid-19 and Women’s Mental Health: The Impact on Well-being, Disparities, and fFuture Implications.”
Community Connection Magazine | Baylor University. (2021, April 1). Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https:// www.baylor.edu/communityconnection/news. php?action=story&story=222809-. 8. “Covid-19 Stress and the Health of …” - journals. sagepub.com. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://journals.sagepub.com/ doi/10.1177/21677026211049379. 9. Dforsythe. (2021, October 19). “Special Initiatives.” Black
Women’s Health Imperative. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://bwhi.org/special-initiatives/. 10. Essence. (2020, December 6). “Essence Releases
‘Impact of covid-19 on Black Women’ Study.” Essence.
Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.essence. com/health-and-wellness/essence-covid-19-blackwomen-study/. 11. Foley, P., Levine, E., Askew, S., Puleo, E., Whiteley, J.,
Batch, B., Heil, D., Dix, Lett, V., Lanpher, M., Miller, J.,
Emmons, K., & Bennett, G. (2012, June 15). “Weight
Gain Prevention Among Black Women in the Rural
Community Health Center Setting: The Shape Program” - BMC Public Health. BioMed Central. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from D., https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral. com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-12-305. 12. McNabb W, Quinn M, Tobian J. “Diabetes in
African American women: The Silent Epidemic.”
Women’s Health. 1997 Fall-Winter; (Hillsdale, N.J.).
Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://pubmed. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9426497/#:~:text=Among%20
African%20American%20women%2C%20 diabetes,long%2Dterm%20complications%20of%20 diabetes. 13. Khalfani, R. (2021, April 21). “State of Working Georgia:
Pandemic Job Numbers are Improving, but Inequitably.”
Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://gbpi.org/state-of-working-georgiapandemic-job-numbers-are-improving-but-inequitably/. 14. L;, B. P. G. (n.d.). “The Social Determinants of Health:
It’s Time to Consider the Causes of the Causes.” Public
Health Reports (Washington, D.C., 1974). Retrieved
April 4, 2022, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/24385661/. 15. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2022, April 1). “Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19).”
Mayo Clinic. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https:// www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/ symptoms-causes/syc-20479963#:~:text=In%20
March%202020%2C%20the,19%20outbreak%20a%20 pandemic. 16. Millett, G. A. (2020, November). “New Pathogen, Same
Disparities: Why Covid-19 and HIV Remain Prevalent in
U.S. Communities of Colour and Implications for Ending the HIV Epidemic.” Journal of the International AIDS
Society. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7645849/. 17. Nora V. Becker, M. D. (2021, July 2). “Utilization of
Women’s Preventive Health Services During the
COVID-19 Pandemic.” JAMA Health Forum. Retrieved
April 4, 2022, from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/ jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2781692. 18 “Pandemic’s Toll on Young Black Women.” Human
Rights Watch. (2020, November 3). Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://edit.hrw.org/news/2020/11/03/ pandemics-toll-young-black-women. 19. Pfender, E. (2020, August). “Mental Health and
Covid-19: Implications for the Future of Telehealth.”
Journal of Patient Experience. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/
PMC7415938/. 20. Ruth Cummins, ricummins@umc.edu. (1AD, January 1).
“Study: Diabetes, Covid-19 Combo Riskier for Blacks,
Hispanics.” University of Mississippi Medical Center.
Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.umc.edu/ news/News_Articles/2021/01/COVID-Diabetes-Study. html. 21. “Sex Disparities in Covid-19 Deaths Hide High Toll on
Black Women.” News. (2021, April 9). Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsphin-the-news/sex-disparities-covid-black-women/. 22. Sims, D. D. (2021, November 19). “Unequal Recovery:
How the COVID-19 Pandemic has Impacted Economic
Security for Black Women and Latinas.” Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://gbpi.org/unequal-recovery-how-the-covid-19pandemic-has-impacted-economic-security-for-blackwomen-and-latinas/. 23. Sweeney AM; Wilson DK; Zarrett N; Brown A;
Quattlebaum M; Gorman B; Loncar H; (n.d.). “Evaluating
Experiences of Stress and Coping Among African
American Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic to Inform Future Interventions.” Health Education &
Behavior: The Official Publication of the Society for
Public Health Education. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34672834/. 24 Thelilynews. (2021, September 29). “No One’s Telling .the Stories of HIV-positive Back Women. In the
Pandemic, They Need More Support.” https://www. thelily.com. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://www. thelily.com/no-ones-telling-the-stories-of-hiv-positiveblack-women-in-the-pandemic-they-need-moresupport/. 25. User, S. (n.d.). “In Practice Rapid Gender Analysis.”
Rapid Gender Analysis. Retrieved April 4, 2022, from https://insights.careinternational.org.uk/in-practice/ rapid-gender-analysis. Source: SOBW_ExecutiveSummary_Digital-2.pdf (statusofwomendata.org) Source: SOBW_ExecutiveSummary_Digital-2.pdf (statusofwomendata.org)
