Date of Award

January 2026

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Department

School of Public Health

First Advisor

James Hadler

Abstract

Background: Influenza is a common respiratory illness in the United States responsible for hundreds of thousands of influenza-associated hospitalizations each year. To implement effective preventative interventions, it is crucial to understand which populations are most at risk of severe illness and hospitalization. Prior studies have found that increased rates of poverty and crowding are associated with increased rates of hospitalization.Methods: This study explores the connection between neighborhood poverty, crowding, and influenza-associated hospitalization through the connection of hospitalized influenza cases with their census tract-level socioeconomic indicators. Addresses of hospitalized cases were geocoded and linked to data on poverty and crowding from the 2024 American Community Survey that corresponded to census tract of residence. Results: This study found a significant association between both poverty and crowding with influenza-associated hospitalizations at a census tract level in Southern Connecticut. Residents in high-poverty census tracts were twice as likely to experience an influenza-associated hospitalization compared to those in low-poverty census tracts. Census tracts with a high proportion of crowded households saw an increased likelihood of influenza-associated hospitalization compared to tracts with a low proportion of crowded households. Conclusion: Influenza-associated hospitalizations are more frequent in impoverished and crowded areas. Increasing the number of health-promoting and prevention measures targeted towards at-risk groups could balance the skewed rates of influenza-associated hospitalizations across socioeconomic groups.

Comments

This is an Open Access Thesis.

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