Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28245827›Full record

ArticleEnvironmental health : a global access science source2017

Reported association of air pollution and suicide rate could be confounded.

R Afshari

Abstract readLetterComment
In one paragraph

Article in Environmental health : a global access science source, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Air pollution and suicide in rural and urban America: Evidence from wildfire smoke.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023
    Article
  3. Air Pollution and Suicide in Mexico City: A Time Series Analysis, 2000-2016.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019
    Article
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

1 author.

R AfshariBC Centre for Disease Control, 655 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 4R4, Canada. Reza.Afshari@bccdc.ca.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A statistical association between ambient air pollution and suicide mortality has been recently reported in Environmental Health, which seems not to be scientifically supported by their data.In this article, very low (unrealistic) suicide rate is reported, which is subjected to selection bias. Their justification is also flawed as high exposure to ambient air pollution in rural areas is lower as compared to urban residents. Weekends, holidays, time of death … are also both air pollution and suicide rate related. Reported statistical association of air pollution and suicide in this study is heavily confound.Please see article under discussion: https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-016-0177-1 .

Indexed as

Air PollutantsAir PollutionEnvironmental ExposureHumansSuicideAir PollutantsAir pollutionSelection biasSuicideUnderreporting

Identifiers

PMID28245827
PMCPMC5331675

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.