OIG: CDC Needs Better Data to More Effectively Address COVID-19 Disparities
- July 22, 2022
To combat health disparities most effectively both during the COVID-19 pandemic and more broadly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) needs adequate data on health outcomes for diverse populations, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in a report posted July 15.
The pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated existing racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic health disparities. While CDC has made efforts to improve its racial and ethnic data for COVID-19 testing, cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, some data remain incomplete, inaccurate, or inconsistent, the report said.
While the quality of data associated with COVID-19 has improved since the beginning of the pandemic, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic data for COVID-19 testing, cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have limitations and provide an incomplete picture of COVID-19 disparities, OIG found.
According to the report, as of January 2022, CDC reported that 67% of COVID-19 testing data and 34% of COVID-19 case data were missing race and ethnicity information.
In addition, OIG said available data may not be representative of the U.S. population. For example, as of July 2021, jurisdictions varied widely in the completeness of racial and ethnic data they reported for COVID-19 testing. As a result, racial and ethnic data for testing may be skewed toward the racial and ethnic composition of jurisdictions reporting more complete data rather than representative of the demographics of the United States.
Although CDC used racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic data to report on COVID-19 disparities, its analyses had gaps and limitations, the report found.
OIG noted that CDC has taken steps to supplement and improve data on COVID-19 testing, cases, hospitalizations, and deaths and has reported using the supplemental data to address disparities via technical assistance to partners, targeted interventions, and significant funding investments.
The report highlighted that, despite their status as public health authorities, two Tribal Epidemiology Centers (TECs) reported difficulty accessing COVID-19 data from both CDC and states. “These challenges, which were also reported in media accounts and testimony from a nonprofit Tribal organization in the summer of 2020, stemmed from staff confusion regarding the public health authority of the TECs,” OIG said.
OIG recommended that CDC: (1) expand efforts both to improve racial and ethnic data associated with COVID-19 and to supplement them with additional data sources; and (2) ensure that TECs have timely access to all public health data to which they are entitled.
Read the report, CDC Found Ways to Use Data to Understand and Address COVID-19 Health Disparities, Despite Challenges With Existing Data (OEI-05-20-00540).