The effects of contemporaneous air pollution on COVID-19 morbidity and mortality

Austin, Wes; Carattini, Stefano; Gomez-Mahecha, John

doi:10.1016/j.jeem.2023.102815

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…The differences between our methodological approaches and results relative to the existing literature on air quality and COVID-19 might be interpreted as evidence that observational studies can generate biased estimates of pollution impacts that could be misinterpreted by policymakers. In fact, the only study that does not use an observational approach [ 7 ], reports smaller effects than most of the observational studies, though its findings are still susceptible to the other two identification issues that we address in this paper.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Work exploring links between ambient pollutant concentrations and health outcomes, including COVID-19 outcomes, such as existing observational studies, is usually confronted by three challenges. Table 1 summarizes 17 representative studies, of which only [ 7 ] is quasi-experimental in nature, that have been referenced in major media outlets or academic reviews, and indicates which, if any, of these challenges are addressed in each study. In this section, we provide an in-depth discussion of the identification challenges facing this strand of the literature and replicate the results from existing studies that ignore these key identification issues.…”

Section: Challenges To Causal Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, air quality and the health effect of interest (COVID-19 outcomes in this case) might both be highly correlated with unobservable community and demographic characteristics, preventing observational studies from identifying causal effects. Of the studies listed in Table 1 , only [ 7 ] addresses the correlation between raw measures of air quality and demographic characteristics by employing a quasi-experimental design similar to the one that we apply here.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such, air pollution is recognized as imposing major costs on society via mortality, morbidity, and other effects [1][2][3]. PM 2.5 , and NO x are TRAPs with known health hazards that have been the focus of numerous studies, generally observational in nature, exploring the relationship between air quality conditions and COVID-19 disease severity [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Table 1 summarizes a surveyed set of these studies, which have generally found positive correlations between worse chronic air quality and the severity of COVID-19 disease globally [13] and at the county level in the United States [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Observational studies generate misleading results about the health effects of air pollution: Evidence from chronic air pollution and COVID-19 outcomes

Conte,

Gordon,

Swartwood

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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Several observational studies from locations around the globe have documented a positive correlation between air pollution and the severity of COVID-19 disease. Observational studies cannot identify the causal link between air quality and the severity of COVID-19 outcomes, and these studies face three key identification challenges: 1) air pollution is not randomly distributed across geographies; 2) air-quality monitoring networks are sparse spatially; and 3) defensive behaviors to mediate exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 are not equally available to all, leading to large measurement error bias when using rate-based COVID-19 outcome measures (e.g., incidence rate or mortality rate). Using a quasi-experimental design, we explore whether traffic-related air pollutants cause people with COVID-19 to suffer more extreme health outcomes in New York City (NYC). When we address the previously overlooked challenges to identification, we do not detect causal impacts of increased chronic concentrations of traffic-related air pollutants on COVID-19 death or hospitalization counts in NYC census tracts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Challenges To Causal Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Observational studies generate misleading results about the health effects of air pollution: Evidence from chronic air pollution and COVID-19 outcomes

Conte,

Gordon,

Swartwood

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Сучасні дослідження також показують, що забруднення повітря відіграє важливу роль в опосередкуванні тяжкості респіраторних синдромів, зокрема COVID-19. Так, було показано, що одночасний вплив дрібних твердих частинок збільшує кількість госпіталізацій, пов'язаних з COVID-19 [6]. Інші забруднювачі, як-от діоксид сірки, оксид вуглецю, діоксид азоту, викликають окиснювальний стрес, пошкодження легень та дисфункцію ендотелію [7].…”

Section: вступunclassified

The influence of air pollutants on COVID-19 severity in the administrative and industrial city of Kharkiv

Podavalenko,

Georgiyants,

Vysotska

et al. 2023

ЕМ

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Background. Despite the official statement by the World Health Organization regarding the end of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the risk of an epidemic rise in morbidity remains due to the active circulation of the pathogen and its mutation. Social, natural, environmental, and other factors can contribute to the spread of COVID-19. Air pollutants are extremely dangerous for humans, and a mixture of aerosols and dust particles in the air can serve as factors for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 transmission. So, the purpose of the study was to reveal the impact of air pollutants on COVID-19 severity in Kharkiv. Materials and methods. The influence of environmental factors on the manifestations of COVID-19 epidemic was assessed for 425 days. 16,723 cases of hospitalizations, 1,883 deaths, and 15,146 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in various age groups were studied. There were on average 4,663 active cases every day. Statistical analysis on assessing the impact of environmental factors on COVID-19 morbidity with different degrees of severity was performed using the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test in the IBM SPSS Statistics software package, and the normality of the distribution was checked using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Microsoft Office Excel 2016 spreadsheet tools were used for some auxiliary calculations and graphing. Results. The influence of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrous oxide, hydrogen sulfide, phenol, soot, and formaldehyde on COVID-19 morbidity in different severity of infection course with incubation periods of 3–4, 6–7, and 10–14 days was revealed. The effect of high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and formaldehyde was most significant on active, confirmed, hospitalized, and fatal cases of COVID-19. At the same time, a rise in active cases of COVID-19 was observed with increasing concentrations of sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, and high concentrations of phenol and soot had an impact on severe forms. Conclusions. Air pollution can contribute to the spread of COVID-19 and lead to its severe forms, which should be considered when predicting morbidity at different levels (national, regional, local) of epidemiological surveillance. Further research is needed to reveal causal relationships between the incidence of COVID-19 and air pollutants, considering the influence of social and natural factors.

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Air Pollution and Respiratory Infectious Diseases

Provenzano,

Roth,

Sager

2024

Environ Resource Econ

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Recent research suggests that short-term exposure to air pollution is associated with an elevated prevalence of respiratory infectious disease. In this paper, we examine the relationship between the air quality index and weekly cases of COVID-19 and influenza-like illnesses (ILI) in the United States. We address potential bias from omitted variables and measurement error with an instrumental variable approach using atmospheric temperature inversions. Unlike other recent studies, we find no relationship between air quality and either COVID-19 or ILI cases.

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The effects of contemporaneous air pollution on COVID-19 morbidity and mortality

Cited by 9 publications

References 105 publications

Observational studies generate misleading results about the health effects of air pollution: Evidence from chronic air pollution and COVID-19 outcomes

Observational studies generate misleading results about the health effects of air pollution: Evidence from chronic air pollution and COVID-19 outcomes

The influence of air pollutants on COVID-19 severity in the administrative and industrial city of Kharkiv

Air Pollution and Respiratory Infectious Diseases

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