Diversity and Inclusion
An Intersectional Perspective on Promoting Diversity and Inclusion: Reasons for Differential Impacts of COVID-19 on Productivity among a Sample of Epidemiologists and Public Health Professionals Lindsay Fernandez-Rhodes* Lindsay Fernandez-Rhodes Brooke S. Staley Nour Makarem David S. Fink Luther-King O. Fasehun Cara L. Frankenfeld
Epidemiologists and other public health professionals from marginalized backgrounds may experience a disparate impact of large-scale (public health) events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or any future pandemics. Although the differential impact of COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers of diverse identities has been documented, the impact on productivity of epidemiologists has not. Using the Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) 2021 Diversity & Inclusion Survey of members and affiliates (participants in past SER research-focused programming), we applied an intersectional approach to model how individual- and interpersonal-level characteristics are associated with specific reasons for reporting negative impacts on productivity during the COVID-19 pandemic (personal physical/mental health concerns, responsibilities to others at work and dependent care responsibilities/mental health). Of 943 respondents in our sample, 52% indicated being less productive due to the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically due to their own health (72.2%), increased work (61.1%) or dependent care responsibilities/mental health (49.9%). The Figure illustrates the intersectional identities that patterned specific reasons for decreased productivity. For example, women in non-academic positions were more likely than men to report impacts due to their personal health (OR=4.7, 95% CI: 1.4-16.2), but this gender effect reversed for trainees (OR=0.2, 95% CI: 0.1-1.0). In English-speaking households, individuals ≥35 years were more likely than those <35 years to report impacts due to increased dependent care responsibilities/mental health (OR=5.2, 95% CI: 2.1-12.4), but again this effect was reversed in households speaking other languages (OR=0.7, 95% CI: 0.2-3.2). We conclude that future research and advocacy should work to address the perceived stressors and objective harms of large-scale public health events on productivity and advancement and to better advance diversity and inclusion efforts.
