Ecological studies of COVID-19 and air pollution: How useful are they?

ABSTRACT:

Background

Results from ecological studies have suggested that air pollution increases the risk of developing and dying from COVID-19. Drawing causal inferences from the measures of association reported in ecological studies is fraught with challenges given biases arising from an outcome whose ascertainment is incomplete, varies by region, time, and across sociodemographic characteristics, and cannot account for clustering or within-area heterogeneity. Through a series of analyses, we illustrate the dangers of using ecological studies to assess whether ambient air pollution increases the risk of dying from, or transmitting, COVID-19.

Methods

We performed an ecological analysis in the continental United States using county-level ambient concentrations of fine particulate matt

SUBMITTER: Villeneuve PJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8835551 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature