ArticleCities (London, England)2022
COVID-19 and the city: Did urbanized countries suffer more fatalities?
Article in Cities (London, England), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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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.
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.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Spatial and neighborhood data in the collaborative cohort of cohorts for COVID-19 Research (C4R).PloS one · 2026Observational
- Article
- Global trends in COVID-19 incidence and case fatality rates (2019-2023): a retrospective analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Tokyo's COVID-19: An urban perspective on factors influencing infection rates in a global city.Sustainable cities and society · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In this paper we derive a theoretical model of the spread of a viral infection which we use as basis for an estimation strategy to test four interrelated hypotheses on the relationship between country-level COVID-19 mortality rates and the extent of urban development. Using data covering 81 countries we find evidence that countries with a higher population density, a higher share of the urban population living in the largest city, and countries with a higher urbanization rate had on average the same or fewer COVID-19 fatalities compared to less urbanized countries in 2020. Even though COVID-19 spreads faster in cities, fatalities may be lower, conditional on economic development, trust in government, and a well-functioning health care system. Generally, urbanization and city development are associated with economic development: with the resources urbanized countries have, it is easier for them to manage and maintain stricter lockdowns, and to roll out effective pharmaceutical interventions.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.