Household factors and the risk of severe COVID-like illness early in the US pandemic

Denis Nash; Saba Qasmieh; McKaylee Robertson; Madhura Rane; Rebecca Zimba; Sarah Kulkarni; Amanda Berry; William You; Chloe Mirzayi; Drew Westmoreland; Angela Parcesepe; Levi Waldron; Shivani Kochhar; Andrew R Maroko; Christian Grov; CHASING COVID Cohort Study Team

doi:10.1101/2020.12.03.20243683

Household factors and the risk of severe COVID-like illness early in the US pandemic

medRxiv [Preprint]. 2020 Dec 4:2020.12.03.20243683. doi: 10.1101/2020.12.03.20243683.

Authors

Denis Nash^{1

2}, Saba Qasmieh¹, McKaylee Robertson¹, Madhura Rane¹, Rebecca Zimba¹, Sarah Kulkarni¹, Amanda Berry¹, William You¹, Chloe Mirzayi¹, Drew Westmoreland¹, Angela Parcesepe^{3

4}, Levi Waldron^{1

2}, Shivani Kochhar¹, Andrew R Maroko^{1

5}, Christian Grov^{1

6}; CHASING COVID Cohort Study Team

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health (ISPH), City University of New York (CUNY); New York City, New York USA.
² Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, City University of New York (CUNY); New York City, New York USA.
³ Department of Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
⁴ Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
⁵ Department of Environmental, Occupational, and Geospatial Health Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, City University of New York (CUNY); New York City, New York USA.
⁶ Department of Community Health and Social Sciences, Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, City University of New York (CUNY); New York City, New York USA.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the role of children in the home and household crowding as risk factors for severe COVID-19 disease.

Methods: We used interview data from 6,831 U.S. adults screened for the Communities, Households and SARS/CoV-2 Epidemiology (CHASING) COVID Cohort Study in April 2020.

Results: In logistic regression models, the adjusted odds ratio [aOR] of hospitalization due to COVID-19 for having (versus not having) children in the home was 10.5 (95% CI:5.7-19.1) among study participants living in multi-unit dwellings and 2.2 (95% CI:1.2-6.5) among those living in single unit dwellings. Among participants living in multi-unit dwellings, the aOR for COVID-19 hospitalization among participants with more than 4 persons in their household (versus 1 person) was 2.5 (95% CI:1.0-6.1), and 0.8 (95% CI:0.15-4.1) among those living in single unit dwellings.

Conclusion: Early in the US SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, certain household exposures likely increased the risk of both SARS-CoV-2 acquisition and the risk of severe COVID-19 disease.

Publication types

Preprint

Abstract

Publication types

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