SEARCHCROSS-SECTIONALpublic health, epidemiology

cross-sectional·public health, epidemiology, family medicine, internal medicine, observational study·PMC10536730

The effects of COVID-19 on African American communities in Baltimore’s health enterprise zones: a mixed-methods examination

BMC Public Health · 3 authors, 3 centres

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TL;DR

It found that while over half reported satisfaction with their health and care, qualitative interviews revealed significant frustration with a lack of community resources for health, nutrition, and mental services.

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This community-engaged mixed-methods study combined surveys and semi-structured interviews from July 2021 to August 2022 with 345 African American adults from five high-impact Baltimore zip codes. Quantitative results showed over half of participants were satisfied with their overall health, quality of healthcare, and access to services. However, qualitative analysis revealed stark contrasts, with participants expressing frustration over inadequate community health resources, including for mental health, nutrition, and activities. The integration of methods highlighted that quantitative satisfaction scores did not fully capture participants' lived experiences of resource scarcity and systemic barriers. Limitations include the use of convenience sampling, which may limit representativeness, and potential influences from survey validation and participant familiarity with terminology. The findings underscore the need for sustained community engagement and equitable policy investments to address persistent health inequities.

STUDY TYPE

cross-sectional

SPECIALTY

public health

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AI pipeline

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ORIGINAL PAPER

PMC10536730

The effects of COVID-19 on African American communities in Baltimore’s health enterprise zones: a mixed-methods examination

BMC Public Health

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ABSTRACT

Abstract Background The CoVID-19 pandemic underscored effects of community resources on the built environment, health and health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to conduct community-engaged research and examine aspects of health, and access to healthcare from the voices of community members, as a foundation for improving health equity through the built environment. Methods This study utilized a convergent mixed methods design that included surveys and semi-structured interviews conducted from July 2021 to August 2022 to examine the impact of limited community resources, such as community health clinics on participants during the CoVID-19 pandemic. A convenient sample of 345 male and female African American participants represented five zip codes (21215, 21216, 21217, 21223, and 21229) in with the highest impact from CoVID 19, in Baltimore, Maryland. Quantitative and qualitative data were integrated to describe how the two types supported one another in health, healthcare and healthcare access. Results More than half of all participants reported satisfaction with overall health, quality of healthcare provided and access to health care services. However, results indicated extreme differences in factors related to health and wellness after, as comparted to before the onset of the pandemic, Semi-structured interviews, expanded on overall community health, highlighting that overall satisfaction with health does not equal satisfaction with health-related resources and suggested participants felt frustrated and left out of much-needed community health resources to improve health and mental health services for all ages, nutrition services and community activities that make communities thrive. Data integration provided a more realistic view of what participants really experience, due to the expanded analysis of semi-structured interviews, and indicated quantitative and qualitative data did not always support each other. Conclusions Future research to improve the built environment, and to address historic health inequities, will require ongoing community engagement to better understand community needs. This study results encourage ongoing research to expand resources for community-engaged research and interventions. Researchers must remain cognoscente of changing needs, and persistent disparities that can only be addressed if policies, supported by these results, are introduced to make equitable investments to forge an environment where healthy communities thrive. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-023-16782-6. Keywords: Built environment, Community health, CoVID-19, Health disparities, Health equity, Healthcare access

CITATION EXPORT

Ludmila F Wikkeling-Scott, Mohammad Gharipour, Salman Mohagheghi. The effects of COVID-19 on African American communities in Baltimore’s health enterprise zones: a mixed-methods examination. BMC Public Health. (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-16782-6

AUTHORS

3 · 3 CENTRES

Ludmila F Wikkeling-Scott, Mohammad Gharipour, Salman Mohagheghi

1Public Health Department, School of Community Health and Policy, Morgan State University, E. 1700 Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21251 USA
2Architecture Program, School of Architecture, Planning and Historic Preservation, University of Maryland, 3835 Campus Drive, College Park, MD 20742 USA
3Electrical Engineering Department, Colorado School of Mines, 1610 Illinois Street, Golden, CO 80401 USA