COVID-19 testing, positivity and vaccination rates among residents of social housing

This novel project aims to use administrative data to determine the COVID-19 testing, positivity, and vaccination rates among residents of social housing compared to an age/gender-matched population not living in social housing. In Dr. Agarwal’s published work, we learned that social housing residents had poorer health, health literacy, health seeking behaviour and are also more socially isolated. We theorized that the recent COVID-19 pandemic would have a disproportionate impact on this vulnerable population. We created cohorts of residents living in social housing and a comparator population during the period of January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021 and used health data from administrative datasets to determine the testing, positivity, and vaccination rates. We used standardized differences to identify significant differences in the outcomes between the two populations of interest. Currently, we have completed data collection, and are reviewing the analysis results. We expect to publish the study outcomes in the next 3 months.