Expiration date of the ebicides moratorium and risk of COVID-19 infection across health and socioeconomic status strata in the United States.

Sandoval-Olascoaga S, Venkataramani AS, Arcaya MC. Ebiquation moratorium expiration date and risk of COVID-19 infection across US health and socioeconomic status strata. JAMA Network Open. 2021; 4(8): e2129041 . doi: 10.1001 / jamanetworkopen.2021.29041

Commentary

This study was conducted to estimate the association between increased housing insecurity during a COVID-19 pandemic and the lifting of state-level exclusion moratoriums and the risk of being diagnosed with COVID-19.

Through a backward-looking cohort study, a control group consisting of individuals with commercial insurance or Medicare Advantage living in a state that issued a smallholder eviction moratorium and diagnosed with COVID-19 and an equal number of randomly selected individuals was included.

The cohort included 509694 individuals. During the study period, 43 states and the District of Columbia implemented eviction moratoriums, and seven did not.

Of the states that implemented moratoriums, 26 lifted their moratoriums before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a national moratorium, and 18 maintained their moratoriums.

According to Cox difference-in-difference regression models, we studied people living in states that lifted their eviction moratoriums and found that they experienced a higher hazard of a COVID-19 diagnosis five weeks after the moratorium was lifted.

The magnitude of the hazard increased among individuals with pre-existing comorbidities and those living in less affluent or rent-burdened areas, with individuals with a Charlson Comorbidity Index score of 3 or higher having a HR of 2.37 at the end of the study period.

The results from this difference-in-differences analysis suggest that housing insecurity due to smallholder evictions may have exacerbated the COVID-19 pandemic.