Disparities in influenza mortality and transmission (Article Sample)

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Grantz et al (2016) conducted a study to explore the relationship between sociodemographic factors and mortality during the pandemic attributed to influenza and pneumonia in the city of Chicago in 1918. The aim of the study was to establish whether the sociodemographic determinants used were positively or negatively correlated with the pandemic. The information gathered would be useful in determining social factors and their effect on the mortality rate of a pandemic.
Grantz et al (2016) used a quantitative study design by investigating spatial differences in mortality. To investigate the social and spatial dependencies with regard to mortality caused by influenza, the researchers digitized historical maps of mortality rates and combined the information with spatial census data of the time. The researchers used a sample of 7,971 pneumonia and influenza deaths attributed to the pandemic in Chicago in 1918. Grantz et al (2016) used point-level published data of death incidents and US census data. The setting of the study was in Chicago where sociodemographic factors could easily be identified due to the diverse population and large population size. Using generalized estimating equations and a poisson model, the researchers studied the effects of the sociodemographic factors which were illiteracy, unemployment, home ownership, and population density.
The researchers found that pneumonia and influenza mortality increased by 32.2 percent for every ten percent increase in illiteracy levels after adjusting for other sociodemographic factors. There was an increased rate of transmissibility among unemployed and illiterate people living in high population density areas. Home ownership did not affect transmissibility. The study is significant in studying how pandemics spread unequally in the population subject to sociodemographic factors. During pandemics, social disparities should be put into focus when trying to stop the spee