New brief shows results from SHADAC COVID-19 Survey on population experiences with COVID sickness and death

Researchers at SHADAC have fielded an updated version of the SHADAC COVID-19 Survey in April 2021, aimed at understanding respondents’ experiences with illness and death due to COVID-19 for themselves, their families, and their contacts.

Results from the survey, presented in the brief to the right, showed that almost 40% of adults in the U.S.:

1. Know someone who has died from COVID.
   Among the adults surveyed, 37.7 percent responded that they know someone who died from the coronavirus. By race/ethnicity, roughly half of Black (56.9 percent) and Hispanic (48.2 percent) adults reported knowing someone who died of COVID-19, a significantly higher amount than White adults or those who reported as “any other” or multiple races. Other breakdowns for this question included age, income level, and education level, for which adults reported similar rates to the overall total (37.7 percent), for knowing someone who died from the coronavirus.

2. Either themselves have, or had a family member who has, contracted COVID.
   Among the adults surveyed, 37.6 percent responded that either they or a family member had become ill due to COVID. Notable breakdowns included about half of Hispanic adults (51.5 percent) who reported that they or an immediate family member had COVID-19, and adults with some college or associate’s degree (44.0 percent) were also more likely to report that they or an immediate family member had COVID-19. Among other categories of age and income level, significantly different percentages from the overall total (37.6 percent) were not seen.

More on the survey
The SHADAC COVID-19 Survey on the impacts of the pandemic on respondents’ experiences with COVID-related illness and death was conducted as part of the AmeriSpeak Omnibus Survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. The survey was conducted using a mix of phone and online modes in April 2021 among a nationally representative sample of 1,007 respondents age 18 and older.

This survey is a continuation of the initial SHADAC COVID-19 Survey, which was aimed at understanding the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on health care access and insurance coverage and pandemic-related stress, and was conducted as part of the same survey, by the same agency, during a similar time frame (April 24-26, 2020), using the same methods, and a similar population sample.

Results from the first iteration of the survey are available in separate briefs on health insurance coverage and access to care and pandemic-related stress, as well as in a pair of chartbooks.