Household factors and the risk of severe COVID-like illness early in the U.S. pandemic

Denis Nash; Saba Qasmieh; McKaylee Robertson; Madhura Rane; Rebecca Zimba; Sarah G 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:10.1371/journal.pone.0271786

Household factors and the risk of severe COVID-like illness early in the U.S. pandemic

PLoS One. 2022 Jul 21;17(7):e0271786. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271786. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Denis Nash^{1

2}, Saba Qasmieh^{1

2}, McKaylee Robertson^{1

2}, Madhura Rane¹, Rebecca Zimba^{1

2}, Sarah G Kulkarni¹, Amanda Berry¹, William You¹, Chloe Mirzayi^{1

2}, Drew Westmoreland¹, Angela Parcesepe^{3

4}, Levi Waldron^{1

5}, 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, United States of America.
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, United States of America.
³ Department of Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
⁴ Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.
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, United States of America.
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, United States of America.

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

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Adult
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Child
Cohort Studies
Crowding
Family Characteristics
Humans
Pandemics*
Risk Factors
SARS-CoV-2

Grants and funding

P2C HD050924/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/United States