An RSV infection usually means you’re sick for a week or two and then you feel better. But older adults are more likely to have serious RSV symptoms that require you to visit the hospital. Research also shows that severe RSV affects some older people of color unequally. What are the reasons for this disparity?
What Is RSV?
Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is an illness that impacts your lungs. It spreads easily, and you catch it like the common cold – someone with the virus coughs, sneezes, or shares it in other ways, and you get droplets of the virus in your eyes, nose, or mouth.
RSV symptoms are usually mild in healthy adults. You’ll probably have a runny nose, coughing, sneezing, a fever, wheezing, and you won’t feel like eating.
Which Racial and Ethnic Groups Have a Higher Chance of Getting Severe RSV?
In general, if you’re age 60 or older and have certain long-term health conditions like lung disease, cardiovascular disease (diseases of your heart and blood vessels), or diabetes, you’re more likely to get severe RSV. This means the illness can trigger other health problems like pneumonia and send you to the hospital. Some groups have an even higher chance of severe RSV and may need to go to the hospital more often.
One report looked at RSV-related hospital visits for older adults over a 1-year period. Most people were 75 years or older, and researchers found that RSV caused significant illness and death, even without other viral infections like COVID-19 or the flu.
Breaking down the data by race and ethnicity, older Black, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander people visited the hospital with RSV-related illnesses less often or around the same rate as their overall populations. But these groups (except for Asian/Pacific Islander people) were more likely to go to the hospital at a younger age than White people. Here’s a closer look at the median ages:
- Asian/Pacific Islander: 79 years old
- White: 77 years old
- Hispanic: 74 years old
- Black: 70 years old
Researchers also noted that the number of RSV-related hospital visits among older Black and Hispanic people fell as their ages rose. For example, Black people ages 60 to 64 made up around 28% of those who needed to go to the hospital, but only 8% by the time they reached age 80.
Why Do Some People of Color Have a Higher Chance of Getting Severe RSV?
There are many possible reasons why some Black and Hispanic people have higher odds of getting severe RSV. Some are directly related to health. Others are tied to things outside of health but that can affect it. This includes things like where you live and your access to health care.
Other health conditions
Most people with RSV who need to go to the hospital, around 94%, have at least one other health condition. Around half have three or more conditions. The top health problems in people with severe RSV are:
- Cardiovascular disease
- Chronic lung disease
- Diabetes
These conditions affect some groups more than others, which then raises their chances of severe RSV. Data shows they all have an outsized impact on Black and Hispanic people in the U.S.
Social determinants of health
Social determinants of health are what our lives look like outside of our individual health that may affect our quality of life. It’s things like how much money you earn, your access to health care, and where you live.
Environment. The world around us, including the air we breathe, can impact our health. Researchers have found that African Americans are more likely to live in neighborhoods with polluted air. And they’ve loosely linked poor air quality with bronchiolitis, a condition that can send you to the hospital when you have RSV.
Poverty. How much money you earn may also influence whether you’ll need to go to the hospital for RSV. One study looked at severe RSV infections in communities across the U.S. Researchers found that as a community’s poverty level rose, so did the rate of RSV-related hospital admissions. The rate is more than two times higher in areas with the highest poverty rates, compared to those with the lowest. While poverty rates continue to decline for Black and Hispanic people in the U.S., these groups are still more likely to live in poverty.
Location. Where you live can also impact your RSV risk. Data shows that states in the U.S. with the highest African American populations, including those in the South, also have the longest RSV seasons.
Improving RSV Health Outcomes of People of Color
While RSV affects everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, or age, the disease can magnify disparities between different groups of people.
More research needed on RSV health disparities
Research shows social and economic factors shape the health outcomes of people with respiratory infections like RSV. But more studies are needed on the policies and practices that play a part in health disparities. Research may overlook the risk of RSV for people who face unequal treatment based on race and those without access to health care, especially those with less money, education, and other resources.
Researchers have compared health disparities in RSV to another respiratory infection: COVID-19. During the pandemic, people with more resources had early access to testing and could better practice social distancing. And in general, medical advances tend to benefit people with more money and better health insurance.
RSV vaccines
One of the best ways to avoid severe illness with RSV is to get vaccinated. Health experts encourage people ages 60 and older who live in nursing homes or other group settings and those who have certain long-term illnesses to get an RSV vaccine.
One poll found there’s less interest in getting the vaccine among Black and Hispanic older adults. Poll results showed 56% of Black and 56% of Hispanic older adults are somewhat or very interested in the vaccine, compared to 65% of White older adults.
Show Sources
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SOURCES:
American Medical Association: “RSV vaccines: Questions patients may have and how to answer.”
CDC: “RSV Transmission,” “Symptoms and Care,” “Hispanic or Latino People and Type 2 Diabetes,” “Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) Epidemiology in Adults.”
Columbia University: “Everything You Need to Know About the RSV Vaccine.”
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR): “Characteristics and Outcomes Among Adults Aged ≥60 Years Hospitalized with Laboratory-Confirmed Respiratory Syncytial Virus – RSV-NET, 12 States, July 2022-June 2023.”
Pew Research Center: “Most Americans say the declining share of White people in the U.S. is neither good nor bad for society.”
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine: “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in America’s Black Population.”
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: “Study: Blacks in U.S. remain at higher heart disease risk than whites.”
Office of Minority Health: “Diabetes and African Americans,” “Hispanic/Latino Health.”
Current Cardiovascular Risk Reports: “Unique Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Hispanic Individuals.”
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: “Social Determinants of Health.”
National Medical Association: “Respiratory Syncytial Virus And African Americans.”
Open Forum Infectious Diseases: “Relationship between Neighborhood Census-tract Level Poverty and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)-associated Hospitalizations in U.S. adults, 2015-2017.”
U.S. Census Bureau: “Inequalities Persist Despite Decline in Poverty For All Major Race and Hispanic Origin Groups.”
