Perceived Racism and Demographic, Mental Health, and Behavioral Characteristics Among High School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, United States, January-June 2021.

Perceived racism in school (i.e., a student's report of being treated badly or unfairly because of their race or ethnicity) is an important yet understudied determinant of adolescent health and well-being. Knowing how perceived racism influences adolescent health can help reduce health inequities. CDC's 2021 Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES), an online survey of a probability-based, nationally representative sample of U.S. public- and private-school students in grades 9-12 (N = 7,705), was conducted during January-June 2021 to assess student behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. CDC analyzed data from ABES to measure perceived racism and the extent to which perceptions of racism are associated with demographic, mental health, and behavioral characteristics. Mental health and behavioral characteristics analyzed included mental health status; virtual connection with others outside of school; serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions; and feeling close to persons at school. Demographic characteristics analyzed included sex, race and ethnicity, and grade. Prevalence of perceived racism and associations between perceived racism and demographic, mental health, and behavioral characteristics are reported overall and stratified by race and ethnicity. Approximately one third (35.6%) of U.S. high school students reported perceived racism. Perceived racism was highest among Asian (63.9%), Black (55.2%), and multiracial students (54.5%). Students who reported perceived racism had higher prevalences of poor mental health (38.1%); difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions (44.1%); and not feeling close to persons at school (40.7%). Perceived racism was higher among those students who reported poor mental health than those who did not report poor mental health during the pandemic among Asian (67.9% versus 40.5%), Black (62.1% versus 38.5%), Hispanic (45.7% and 22.9%), and White students (24.5% versus 12.7%). A better understanding of how negative health outcomes are associated with student experiences of racism can guide training for staff and students to promote cultural awareness and antiracist and inclusivity interventions, which are critical for promoting safe school environments for all students.

Use of Tobacco Products, Alcohol, and Other Substances Among High School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, United States, January-June 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with established risk factors for adolescent substance use, including social isolation, boredom, grief, trauma, and stress. However, little is known about adolescent substance use patterns during the pandemic. CDC analyzed data from the Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, an online survey of a probability-based, nationally representative sample of public- and private-school students in grades 9-12 (N = 7,705), to examine the prevalence of current use of tobacco products, alcohol, and other substances among U.S. high school students. Prevalence was examined by demographic characteristics and instructional models of the students' schools (in-person, virtual, or hybrid). During January-June 2021, 31.6% of high school students reported current use of any tobacco product, alcohol, or marijuana or current misuse of prescription opioids. Current alcohol use (19.5%), electronic vapor product (EVP) use (15.4%), and marijuana use (12.8%) were more prevalent than prescription opioid misuse (4.3%), current cigarette smoking (3.3%), cigar smoking (2.3%), and smokeless tobacco use (1.9%). Approximately one third of students who used EVPs did so daily, and 22.4% of students who drank alcohol did so ≥6 times per month. Approximately one in three students who ever used alcohol or other drugs reported using these substances more during the pandemic. The prevalence of substance use was typically higher among non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native students, older students, and gay, lesbian, or bisexual students than among students of other racial or ethnic groups, younger students, and heterosexual students. The prevalence of alcohol use also was higher among non-Hispanic White students than those of other racial or ethnic groups. Students only attending school virtually had a lower prevalence of using most of the substances examined than did students attending schools with in-person or hybrid models. These findings characterizing youth substance use during the pandemic can help inform public health interventions and messaging to address these health risks during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Estimated SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence in the US as of September 2020.

Importance: Case-based surveillance of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection likely underestimates the true prevalence of infections. Large-scale seroprevalence surveys can better estimate infection across many geographic regions. Objective: To estimate the prevalence of persons with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using residual sera from commercial laboratories across the US and assess changes over time. Design, Setting, and Participants: This repeated, cross-sectional study conducted across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico used a convenience sample of residual serum specimens provided by persons of all ages that were originally submitted for routine screening or clinical management from 2 private clinical commercial laboratories. Samples were obtained during 4 collection periods: July 27 to August 13, August 10 to August 27, August 24 to September 10, and September 7 to September 24, 2020. Exposures: Infection with SARS-CoV-2. Main Outcomes and Measures: The proportion of persons previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 as measured by the presence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 by 1 of 3 chemiluminescent immunoassays. Iterative poststratification was used to adjust seroprevalence estimates to the demographic profile and urbanicity of each jurisdiction. Seroprevalence was estimated by jurisdiction, sex, age group (0-17, 18-49, 50-64, and ≥65 years), and metropolitan/nonmetropolitan status. Results: Of 177 919 serum samples tested, 103 771 (58.3%) were from women, 26 716 (15.0%) from persons 17 years or younger, 47 513 (26.7%) from persons 65 years or older, and 26 290 (14.8%) from individuals living in nonmetropolitan areas. Jurisdiction-level seroprevalence over 4 collection periods ranged from less than 1% to 23%. In 42 of 49 jurisdictions with sufficient samples to estimate seroprevalence across all periods, fewer than 10% of people had detectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Seroprevalence estimates varied between sexes, across age groups, and between metropolitan/nonmetropolitan areas. Changes from period 1 to 4 were less than 7 percentage points in all jurisdictions and varied across sites. Conclusions and Relevance: This cross-sectional study found that as of September 2020, most persons in the US did not have serologic evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, although prevalence varied widely by jurisdiction. Biweekly nationwide testing of commercial clinical laboratory sera can play an important role in helping track the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the US.

Changes to the sample design and weighting methods of a public health surveillance system to also include persons not receiving HIV medical care.

OBJECTIVES: The Medical Monitoring Project (MMP) is a public health surveillance system that provides representative estimates of the experiences and behaviors of adults with diagnosed HIV in the United States. In 2015, the sample design and frame of MMP changed from a system that only included HIV patients to one that captures the experiences of persons receiving and not receiving HIV care. We describe methods investigated for calculating survey weights, the approach chosen, and the benefits of using a dynamic surveillance registry as a sampling frame. METHODS: MMP samples adults with diagnosed HIV from the National HIV Surveillance System, the HIV case surveillance registry for the United States. In the methodological study presented in this manuscript, we compared methods that account for sample design and nonresponse, including weighting class adjustment vs. propensity weighting and a single-stage nonresponse adjustment vs. sequential adjustments for noncontact and nonresponse. We investigated how best to adjust for non-coverage using surveillance data to post-stratify estimates. RESULTS: After assessing these methods, we chose as our preferred procedure weighting class adjustments and a single-stage nonresponse adjustment. Classes were constructed using variables associated with respondents' characteristics and important survey outcomes, chief among them laboratory results available from surveillance that served as a proxy for medical care. CONCLUSIONS: MMPs weighting procedures reduced sample bias by leveraging auxiliary information on medical care available from the surveillance registry sampling frame. Expanding MMPs population of focus provides important information on characteristics of persons with diagnosed HIV that complement the information provided by the surveillance registry. MMP methods can be applied to other disease registries or population-monitoring systems when more detailed information is needed for a population, with the detailed information obtained efficiently from a representative sample of the population covered by the registry.

Weighting Nonprobability and Probability Sample Surveys in Describing Cancer Catchment Areas.

BACKGROUND: The Population Health Assessment initiative by NCI sought to enhance cancer centers' capacity to acquire, aggregate, and integrate data from multiple sources, as well as to plan, coordinate, and enhance catchment area analysis activities. METHODS: Key objectives of this initiative are pooling data and comparing local data with national data. A novel aspect of analyzing data from this initiative is the methodology used to weight datasets from sites that collected both probability and nonprobability samples. This article describes the methods developed to weight data, which cancer centers collected with combinations of probability, and nonprobability sampling designs. RESULTS: We compare alternative weighting methods in particular for the hybrid probability and nonprobability sampling designs employed by different cancer centers. We also include comparisons of local center data with national survey data from large probability samples. CONCLUSIONS: This hybrid approach to calculating statistical weights can be implemented both within cancer centers that collect both probability and nonprobability samples with common measures. Aggregation can also apply to cancer centers that share common data elements, and target similar populations, but differ in survey sampling designs. IMPACT: Researchers interested in local versus national comparisons for cancer surveillance and control outcomes should consider various weighting approaches, including hybrid approaches, when analyzing their data.