Health disparities among pregnant women diagnosed with COVID-19 in Philadelphia

Introduction: The CDC has cited language barriers and racial discrimination as some of the social determinants of health during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to investigate the socioeconomic factors that affect COVID-19 diagnosis and outcomes in pregnant women. We hypothesize that women whose primary language is not English will have higher rates of COVID-19 compared to women whose primary language is English. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of women who delivered at TJUH between 04/13/2020 and 06/31/2020. Data on demographics, SARS-CoV-2 PCR, maternal, fetal, neonatal outcomes were collected. The primary outcome was the proportion of English vs Non-English-speaking patients with and without SARS-CoV-2 positive PCR. Data were analyzed using a Chi-squared test. Multivariable logistic regression will be used to control for the effect of factors including comorbidities and income level. The study was approved by TJUH Institutional Review Board. Results: Preliminary data are herein reported. 473 women have been included thus far (of 713 eligible), 106 tested positive and 367 tested negative. Overall, the preferred language was English in 78.4%, Spanish in 12.9%, Other in 8.7%. There were significantly more Non-English-speaking patients in the COVID-19 positive group than in the COVID-19 negative group (36.8% vs 17.2%, p\u3c0.001). Discussion: Non-English-speaking pregnant women are disproportionally represented in the COVID positive patient population, which supports our hypothesis. This suggest that language is significant barrier to SARS-CoV-2 care, this may be related to other sociodemographic factors. Further analysis will provide data on the impact of this disparity. Data collection will be completed in January 2021