Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34157513›Full record

ArticleJournal of health economics2021

Face masks, public policies and slowing the spread of COVID-19: Evidence from Canada.

Alexander Karaivanov, Shih En Lu, Hitoshi Shigeoka, Cong Chen, Stephanie Pamplona

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of health economics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 54 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
54citing papers in PubMed, 3 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

54 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  13. 'It's quite a balancing act': A qualitative study of parents' experiences and information needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2024
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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

5 authors.

Alexander KaraivanovDepartment of Economics, Simon Fraser University, Canada. Electronic address: akaraiva@sfu.ca.
Shih En LuDepartment of Economics, Simon Fraser University, Canada. Electronic address: shihenl@sfu.ca.
Hitoshi ShigeokaDepartment of Economics, Simon Fraser University, Canada; NBER, USA. Electronic address: hitoshi_shigeoka@sfu.ca.
Cong ChenDepartment of Economics, Simon Fraser University, Canada.
Stephanie PamplonaDepartment of Economics, Simon Fraser University, Canada.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We estimate the impact of indoor face mask mandates and other non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) on COVID-19 case growth in Canada. Mask mandate introduction was staggered from mid-June to mid-August 2020 in the 34 public health regions in Ontario, Canada's largest province by population. Using this variation, we find that mask mandates are associated with a 22 percent weekly reduction in new COVID-19 cases, relative to the trend in absence of mandate. Province-level data provide corroborating evidence. We control for mobility behaviour using Google geo-location data and for lagged case totals and case growth as information variables. Our analysis of additional survey data shows that mask mandates led to an increase of about 27 percentage points in self-reported mask wearing in public. Counterfactual policy simulations suggest that adopting a nationwide mask mandate in June could have reduced the total number of diagnosed COVID-19 cases in Canada by over 50,000 over the period July-November 2020. Jointly, our results indicate that mandating mask wearing in indoor public places can be a powerful policy tool to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Indexed as

Communicable Disease ControlCOVID-19MasksPublic PolicyCanadaHumansCounterfactualsCOVID-19Face mask mandatesNon-pharmaceutical interventions

Identifiers

PMID34157513
PMCPMC8172278

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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.