TY - JOUR
T1 - COVID-19 and Immigrant Essential Workers
T2 - Bhutanese and Burmese Refugees in the United States
AU - Zhang, Mengxi
AU - Gurung, Ashok
AU - Anglewicz, Philip
AU - Yun, Katherine
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the community leaders and study participants for sharing their time and experiences and acknowledge Parangkush Subedi, MPH, and Curi Kim, MD, MPH, from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Refugee Resettlement, for their assistance in questionnaire development. None of the individuals acknowledged received compensation for contributions to the study. The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health.
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - Objectives: Immigrants are believed to be at high risk of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A leading suspected risk factor is their role in the essential workforce. We aimed to describe COVID-19–related risk factors among Bhutanese and Burmese refugees in the United States. Methods: We administered an anonymous online survey in May 2020 among community leaders of Bhutanese and Burmese refugees. Using a snowball sampling strategy, we invited community leaders to complete the survey and share the link with others who met inclusion criteria (English proficient, aged ≥18, currently living in the United States). We compared respondents with and without recent COVID-19 and identified risk factors for infection. Results: Of 218 refugees in 23 states who completed the survey from May 15 through June 1, 2020, fifteen (6.9%) reported infection with COVID-19. Being an essential worker during the pandemic (odds ratio [OR] = 5.25; 95% CI, 1.21-22.78), having an infected family member (OR = 26.92; 95% CI, 5.19-139.75), and being female (OR = 5.63; 95% CI, 1.14-27.82) were risk factors for infection. Among 33 infected family members, 23 (69.7%) were essential workers. Conclusion: Although we had a small snowball sample, we found that working in essential industries was associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 infection among Bhutanese and Burmese refugees. We call for larger studies that include Asian immigrant subgroups, as well as immediate attention to protecting immigrant essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AB - Objectives: Immigrants are believed to be at high risk of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A leading suspected risk factor is their role in the essential workforce. We aimed to describe COVID-19–related risk factors among Bhutanese and Burmese refugees in the United States. Methods: We administered an anonymous online survey in May 2020 among community leaders of Bhutanese and Burmese refugees. Using a snowball sampling strategy, we invited community leaders to complete the survey and share the link with others who met inclusion criteria (English proficient, aged ≥18, currently living in the United States). We compared respondents with and without recent COVID-19 and identified risk factors for infection. Results: Of 218 refugees in 23 states who completed the survey from May 15 through June 1, 2020, fifteen (6.9%) reported infection with COVID-19. Being an essential worker during the pandemic (odds ratio [OR] = 5.25; 95% CI, 1.21-22.78), having an infected family member (OR = 26.92; 95% CI, 5.19-139.75), and being female (OR = 5.63; 95% CI, 1.14-27.82) were risk factors for infection. Among 33 infected family members, 23 (69.7%) were essential workers. Conclusion: Although we had a small snowball sample, we found that working in essential industries was associated with an increased risk of COVID-19 infection among Bhutanese and Burmese refugees. We call for larger studies that include Asian immigrant subgroups, as well as immediate attention to protecting immigrant essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
KW - Asian American
KW - COVID-19
KW - essential worker
KW - immigrant
KW - refugee
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U2 - 10.1177/0033354920971720
DO - 10.1177/0033354920971720
M3 - Article
C2 - 33207130
AN - SCOPUS:85096339104
SN - 0033-3549
VL - 136
SP - 117
EP - 123
JO - Public health reports
JF - Public health reports
IS - 1
ER -