Investigating Racial Differences among Men in COVID-19 Diagnosis, and Related Psychosocial and Behavioral Factors: Data from the Michigan Men’s Health Event

Jaclynn Hawkins, Karen Gilcher, Claudia Schwenzer and Michael Lutz
Additional contact information
Jaclynn Hawkins: School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Karen Gilcher: Michigan Institute of Urology Men’s Health Foundation, 419 Golf View Lane, Rochester, MI 48309, USA
Claudia Schwenzer: School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Michael Lutz: Michigan Institute of Urology Men’s Health Foundation, 419 Golf View Lane, Rochester, MI 48309, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 6, 1-11

Abstract: Extant research is growing in its ability to explain sex differences in novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) diagnosis and mortality. Moving beyond comparisons based on biological sex is now warranted to capture a more nuanced picture of disparities in COVID-19 diagnosis and mortality specifically among men who are more likely to die of the illness. The objective of this study was to investigate racial disparities in COVID-19-related psychosocial, behavior and health variables among men. The present study utilizes a sample of 824 men who participated in a free health event held in a Midwestern state. Chi-square analysis showed that African American men were more likely to report an adverse impact of COVID-19 based on several factors including experiencing more COVID-19-related medical issues (? 2 = 4.60 p = 0.03); higher COVID-19 diagnosis (? 2 = 4.60 p = 0.02); trouble paying for food (? 2 = 8.47, p = 0.00), rent (? 2 = 12.26, p = 0.00), medication (? 2 = 7.10 p = 0.01) and utility bills (? 2 = 19.68, p = 0.00); higher fear of contracting COVID-19 (? 2 = 31.19, p = 0.00); and higher rates of death of close friends and family due to COVID (? 2 = 48.85, p = 0.00). Non-Hispanic white men reported more increased stress levels due to COVID-19 compared to African American men (? 2 = 10.21, p = 0.01). Regression analysis showed that race was a significant predictor of self-reported COVID-19 diagnosis (OR = 2.56, p < 0.05) after controlling for demographic characteristics. The results showed that compared to non-Hispanic White men, African American men were more likely to report an adverse impact of COVID-19 based on several factors including experiencing more COVID-19-related medical issues; higher COVID-19 diagnosis; trouble paying for food, rent, medication and utility bills; higher fear of contracting COVID-19; and higher rates of death of close friends and family due to COVID. Interestingly, non-Hispanic white men reported more increased stress levels due to COVID-19 compared to African American men.

Keywords: COVID-19; men’s health; race (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3284/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3284/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3284-:d:521958

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().