Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33720459›Full record

ArticleThe Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association2021

Interstates of Infection: Preliminary Investigations of Human Mobility Patterns in the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Jacob M Souch, Jeralynn S Cossman, Mark D Hayward

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–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. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Interstates of Infection: Preliminary Investigations of Human Mobility Patterns in the COVID-19 Pandemic.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2021
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Jacob M SouchDepartment of Sociology and Anthropology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-9146-0592
Jeralynn S CossmanDepartment of Sociology and Anthropology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA.
Mark D HaywardDepartment of Sociology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4702-1461

Funding

Scientific & Technical CoreP2CHD042849 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN · PI MARK D. HAYWARD · 2017 to 2026
$5.2M
NICHD NIH HHS P2C HD042849
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeThe COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated various heterogeneities between urban and rural environments in public health. The SARS-CoV-2 virus initially spread into the United States from international ports of entry and into urban population centers, like New York City. Over the course of the pandemic, cases emerged in more rural areas, implicating issues of transportation and mobility. Additionally, many rural areas developed into national hotspots of prevalence and transmission. Our aim was to investigate the preliminary impacts of road travel on the spread of COVID-19. This investigation has implications for future public health mitigation efforts and travel restrictions in the United States.

methodsCounty-level COVID-19 data were analyzed for spatiotemporal patterns in time-to-event distributions using animated choropleth maps. Data were obtained from The New York Times and the Bureau of the Census. The arrival event was estimated by examining the number of days between the first reported national case (January 21, 2020) and the date that each county attained a given prevalence rate. Of the 3108 coterminous US counties, 2887 were included in the analyses. Data reflect cases accumulated between January 21, 2020, and May 17, 2020.

findingsAnimations revealed that COVID-19 was transmitted along the path of interstates. Quantitative results indicated rural-urban differences in the estimated arrival time of COVID-19. Counties that are intersected by interstates had an earlier arrival than non-intersected counties. The arrival time difference was the greatest in the most rural counties and implicates road travel as a factor of transmission into rural communities.

conclusionHuman mobility via road travel introduced COVID-19 into more rural communities. Interstate travel restrictions and road travel restrictions would have supported stronger mitigation efforts during the earlier stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced transmission via network contact.

Indexed as

Rural PopulationTravelCOVID-19Geography, MedicalHumansPandemicsUnited StatesCOVID-19mobilityrural-urbanspatiotemporaltime-to-event

Identifiers

PMID33720459
PMCPMC8101290

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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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.