Paper Information

CCH patients living in majority Black census tracts in Cook County had double the rate of CA-MRSA infections as compared to CCH patients living in majority white census tracts. Socio-economic indicators such as public transportation use and the presence of homeless shelters in a census tract were associated with CA-MRSA rates in multivariate analyses. However, jail admission rates explained the largest proportion of CA-MRSA burden (30%) and racial inequities in CA-MRSA incidence (69%).

Describe inequities in community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infections and identify social factors contributing to these disparities.

High risks of MRSA infection and colonization have consistently been documented among incarcerated and recently incarcerated individuals. Our results suggest that incarceration may also drive infections among non-incarcerated individuals living in communities with high levels of indirect exposure to jails, especially in majority Black census tracts.

We characterized census tract-level risk factors for CA-MRSA infections in the Cook County Health (CCH) catchment population in Cook County, IL from 2009-2022 using hierarchical Poisson regression models. We conducted mediation analyses to estimate a) the total risk attributable to and b) proportion of between-tract disparities in CA-MRSA accounted for by census tract-level inequities in risk factors.