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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Life-Course Epidemiology and Social Inequalities in Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1422914

Health Equity in COVID-19 Testing among Patients of a Large National Pharmacy Chain

Provisionally accepted
Tanya Singh Tanya Singh 1*Renae Smith-Ray Renae Smith-Ray 1Elijah Ogunkoya Elijah Ogunkoya 1Amy Shah Amy Shah 1Daniel A. Harris Daniel A. Harris 2,3,4*Kaleen N. Hayes Kaleen N. Hayes 2,3,4Vincent Mor Vincent Mor 2,3,4
  • 1 Independent researcher, Deerfield, United States
  • 2 Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
  • 3 Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, United States
  • 4 Providence VA Medical Center, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Providence, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study utilized COVID-19 testing data from Walgreens, one of the largest community pharmacy chains in the United States. Analysis of over 18 million tests revealed that Black, Hispanic, Latino, and Native American individuals were more likely to test positive for COVID-19 compared to White individuals. Non-White individuals were also more likely to test positive for variants of concern when dominant viral strains were changing in the population (e.g., transition from delta to omicron). This study demonstrates the potential and capacity for large community pharmacy chains to administer, store, and analyze large amounts of COVID-19 testing data to monitor population health and health equity.

    Keywords: COVID-19, health equity, Pharmacy, whole genome sequencing, testing

    Received: 03 May 2024; Accepted: 27 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Singh, Smith-Ray, Ogunkoya, Shah, Harris, Hayes and Mor. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Tanya Singh, Independent researcher, Deerfield, United States
    Daniel A. Harris, Department of Health Services, Policy, and Practice, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, 02912, Rhode Island, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.