Study Shows Native Children Disproportionately Experience Orphanhood Due to COVID-19

On October 7, 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a study on caregiver deaths by race and ethnicity. The study highlights stark COVID-19 disparities in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities.

According to the study, 1 of every 168 AI/AN children experienced orphanhood or death of caregivers due to the pandemic compared to 1 of every 310 Black children, 1 of every 412 Hispanic children, 1 of every 612 Asian children, and 1 of every 753 white children experienced orphanhood or death of caregivers. AI/AN children were 4.5 times more likely than white children to lose a parent or grandparent caregiver.

Native communities face some of the harshest disparities in health outcomes of any population in the U.S. and are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the Study

The study was a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Imperial College London, Harvard University, Oxford University, and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Published in the Oct. 7 issue of the journal Pediatrics, it was jointly led by CDC’s COVID Response and Imperial College London, and partly funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as well as Imperial College London.

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