COVID-19 and mental health equity in the United States

Excerpt

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have profound mental health impacts that pervade racial, ethnic, and class lines in the United States. Past disasters and public health emergencies, however, suggest that socially disadvantaged groups (e.g., racial/ethnic minorities, people with low income) will experience more psychiatric morbidity related to the pandemic than socially advantaged groups [1]. The origins of these disparities are structural in nature. Historically produced arrangements of power and privilege provide socially advantaged groups with more resources to limit their exposure to, and cope with, stressors caused by disaster. Although racial/ethnic minorities have lower lifetime prevalence rates of mood and anxiety disorders than non-Hispanic whites in the United States [2], while low-income groups have higher rates [3], there are specific aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic that could cause it to have disproportionately adverse impacts on the mental health of racial/ethnic minorities as well as low-income populations. …