Using Data to Decode the Intersection of COVID-19, Census Data, and Social Determinants of Health

Two topics that have been at the top of the news cycle this year are the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. decennial census.

The pandemic has had an unequal effect across society with those who can least afford it being impacted the most.

Debates about the census have highlighted how much we rely on accurate enumeration of the population to ensure fair legislative representation and distribution of federal funds.

These two issues converge in an interesting way: the impact of COVID-19 on specific demographic groups can be determined quite accurately by combining data on disease incidence with census data, which is rich in information on social determinants of health.

This session will explore the possibilities, as well as the limitations, of combining these datasets and drawing conclusions from the results.