ArticleEnvironmental research2020
The mediating effect of air quality on the association between human mobility and COVID-19 infection in China.
Article in Environmental research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effects of the built environment and human factors on the spread of COVID-19: A systematic literature review.The Science of the total environment · 2022Pooled it
- An updated systematic review on the association between atmospheric particulate matter pollution and prevalence of SARS-CoV-2.Environmental research · 2021Pooled it
- The mediating effect of air pollution on the association between meteorological factors and influenza-like illness in China.BMC public health · 2025Article
- The effect of deforestation on COVID-19 transmission to Indigenous peoples in Brazil: A panel fixed-effects analysis before and after vaccination.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- The effects of COVID-19 on agriculture supply chain, food security, and environment: a review.PeerJ · 2024Review
- Article
- A Literature Review of the Effects of Air Pollution on COVID-19 Health Outcomes Worldwide: Statistical Challenges and Data Visualization.Annual review of public health · 2023Review
- Impact assessment of COVID-19 global pandemic on water, environment, and humans.Environmental advances · 2023Article
- Air pollution and mobility patterns in two Ugandan cities during COVID-19 mobility restrictions suggest the validity of air quality data as a measure for human mobility.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2023Article
- Seasonal Variation Analysis for Weekly Cases, Deaths, and Hospitalizations of COVID-19 in the United States.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2023Article
- Human Mobility Restrictions and COVID-19 Infection Rates: Analysis of Mobility Data and Coronavirus Spread in Poland and Portugal.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Article
- Risk Transmission Mechanism of Domestic Cluster Epidemic Caused by Overseas Imported Cases: Multiple Case Studies Based on Grounded Theory.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- High altitude Relieves transmission risks of COVID-19 through meteorological and environmental factors: Evidence from China.Environmental research · 2022Article
- Negative-Binomial and quasi-poisson regressions between COVID-19, mobility and environment in São Paulo, Brazil.Environmental research · 2022Article
- How do the smart travel ban policy and intercity travel pattern affect COVID-19 trends? Lessons learned from Iran.PloS one · 2022Article
- Transformation of urban mobility during COVID-19 pandemic - Lessons for transportation planning.Journal of transport & health · 2021Article
- Effect of COVID-19 pandemic on ambient air quality and excess risk of particulate matter in Turkey.Environmental challenges (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2021Article
- Characteristics of air quality in different climatic zones of China during the COVID-19 lockdown.Atmospheric pollution research · 2021Article
- Meteorological and human mobility data on predicting COVID-19 cases by a novel hybrid decomposition method with anomaly detection analysis: A case study in the capitals of Brazil.Expert systems with applications · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPrevious studies have found that human mobility restrictions could not only prevent the spread of COVID-19, but also improve the air quality because of the reduction of industrial production, transportation and traffic. It is noteworthy that air quality is also closely related to the risk of COVID-19 infection. Therefore, we aimed to assess the mediating role of air quality on the association between human mobility and the infection caused by this novel coronavirus.
methodsWe collected daily confirmed cases, human mobility data, air quality data and meteorological variables in 120 cities from China between January 23, 2020 and February 29, 2020. We applied the generalized additive model to examine the association of human mobility index with COVID-19 confirmed cases, and to assess the mediating effects of air quality index and each pollutant.
resultsWe observed a significant positive relationship between human mobility index and the daily counts of COVID-19 confirmed cases. A unit increase in human mobility index (lag0-14) was associated with a 6.45% increase in daily COVID-19 confirmed cases, and air quality index significantly mediated 19.47% of this association. We also observed a positive relationship between human mobility index and air quality index. In the pollutant level analyses, we found significant mediating effects of PM
conclusionsOur study suggests that limiting human movements could reduce COVID-19 cases by improving air quality besides decreasing social contact.
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