HARTFORD, Conn. — Similar to trends seen in adults, COVID-19 disproportionately impacts Black and Hispanic children, according to a new study from researchers at Yale University.
The study, which looked at more than 250 cases from hospitals in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, found that nearly three-quarters of all children hospitalized with serious cases of the virus were Black or Hispanic. Of those cases, 51% were Hispanic, while 23% were Black, researchers discovered.
Researchers are continuing to look into what is driving these inequities, the university said, but some information points to socioeconomic status as a key factor.
One of the researchers, Dr. Carlos Oliveira, assistant professor of pediatrics and director of congenital infectious diseases at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, said he believes the children are getting the virus from their parents, who are essential workers.
"The first COVID-19 patient I took care of was a Hispanic teenager with respiratory disease," Oliveira said in a news release. "As we were about to intubate him, we learned that his father, who was in his late 30s, was placed on a ventilator a few hours prior, and his mother was just beginning to show signs of COVID-19."
Similar studies have shown that a higher number of Black and Hispanic adults are hospitalized with severe cases of the virus. A recent American Heart Association study found that number to be 60% of all hospitalizations.
The Yale study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, also discovered a disparity in how the virus affects children based on race. The majority of children with severe respiratory symptoms were Hispanic teenagers with existing health issues, while Black children were more likely to present with multisystem inflammatory syndrome, which manifests two to four weeks after an initial infection, according to the university.
"It was not what we expected," Oliveira said in the news release. "It was almost like two different diseases. We have a lot more work to do to untangle race and ethnicity from socioeconomic factors."
Of the 281 cases reviewed by Yale researchers, 51% had respiratory disease. The children, seen at five New York hospitals, two New Jersey hospitals and Yale New Haven Hospital, were sickened during the peak of the pandemic in the spring, the study shows.
Speaking to Yale New Haven Children's Hospital specifically, Oliveira said about 40 children have been hospitalized with COVID-19, and all have recovered.
