December 9, 2021
New study indicates sociodemographic factors increase chances of COVID-19 test positivity
Researchers at the University of Washington recently conducted a study determining the role of clinical, sociodemographic and geographic factors in increasing the probability that patients test positive for COVID-19. Their findings were published in the October 2021 issue of PLOS ONE.
Researchers assessed roughly 64,000 patients who received a SARS-CoV-2 test between January 1, 2020 and August 7, 2020 and met the prerequisite of one prior clinical visit to the UW Medicine health system. They developed a model that tracked more than 185 features along with the type of healthcare visit based on electronic health records of patients tested during this time period.
The single most informative factor of the study was the rate of recent test positivity in home ZIP codes, highlighting the significance of geography and population density. Overall, across all visit types, sociodemographic features proved to be the stronger indicator of test positivity compared to clinical data, suggesting that these regularly recorded data points can be used to impact the future of COVID-19.
The findings of this study will help eliminate the previously existing barriers stemming from a lack of knowledge regarding the impact of social factors on testing and the spread of COVID-19. The likelihood of test positivity informed by geographic and sociodemographic factors can be used to inform vaccination efforts in the future, which ultimately contributes to the greater goal of decreasing the spread and effects of COVID-19.
This project was supported in part by a Population Health Initiative COVID-19 rapid response grant.