Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37490210›Full record

ArticleJournal of racial and ethnic health disparities2024

COVID-19 Pandemic as an Equalizer of the Health Returns of Educational Attainment for Black and White Americans.

Arash Rahmani, Babak Najand, Najmeh Maharlouei, Hossein Zare, Shervin Assari

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
0.6field-weighted citation impact, top 33% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 2 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Arash RahmaniMarginalized-Related Diminished Returns (MDRs) Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Babak NajandMarginalized-Related Diminished Returns (MDRs) Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Najmeh MaharloueiMarginalized-Related Diminished Returns (MDRs) Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Hossein ZareDepartment of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
Shervin AssariMarginalized-Related Diminished Returns (MDRs) Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA. assari@umich.edu.ORCID 0000-0002-5054-6250
Johns Hopkins University · USSomali National University · SO

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundCOVID-19 pandemic has immensely impacted the social and personal lives of individuals around the globe. Marginalized-related diminished returns (MDRs) theory suggests that educational attainment shows a weaker protective effect for health and behavioral outcomes for Black individuals compared to White individuals. Previous studies conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated diminished returns of educational attainment for Black individuals compared to White individuals.

objectivesThe study has three objectives: First, to test the association between educational attainment and cigarette smoking, e-cigarette vaping, presence of chronic medical conditions (CMC), self-rated health (SRH), depressive symptoms, and obesity; second, to explore racial differences in these associations in the USA during the COVID-19 pandemic; and third, to compare the interaction of race and return of educational attainment pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic.

methodsThis study utilized data from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 2020. Total sample included 1313 adult American; among them, 77.4% (n = 1017) were non-Hispanic White, and 22.6% (n = 296) were non-Hispanic Black. Educational attainment was the independent variable operationalized as years of education. The main outcomes were cigarette smoking, e-cigarette vaping, CMC, SRH, depressive symptoms, and obesity. Age, gender, and baseline physical health were covariates. Race/ethnicity was an effect modifier.

resultsEducational attainment was significantly associated with lower CMC, SRH, depressive symptoms, obesity, cigarette smoking, and e-cigarette vaping. Educational attainment did not show a significant interaction with race on any of our outcomes, suggesting that the health returns of education is similar between non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Black individuals.

conclusionCOVID-19 may have operated as an equalizer of the returns of educational attainment. This observation may be because White may have more to lose; Black communities may be more resilient or have economic and social policies that buffered unemployment and poverty regardless of historical anti-Black oppression.

Indexed as

Black or African AmericanCOVID-19Educational StatusWhite PeopleAdolescentAdultAgedChronic DiseaseCigarette SmokingDepressionFemaleHealth Status DisparitiesHumansMaleMiddle AgedObesityCOVID-19 pandemicEducational attainmentMarginalized-related diminished returnSocioeconomic status

Identifiers

PMID37490210
PMCPMC11101502
OpenAlexW4385230675

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.