Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36709674›Full record

ArticleEnvironment international2023

A spatio-temporal framework for modelling wastewater concentration during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Guangquan Li, Hubert Denise, Peter Diggle, Jasmine Grimsley, Chris Holmes, Daniel James, Radka Jersakova, Callum Mole, George Nicholson, Camila Rangel Smith and 6 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Environment international, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
12citing 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

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

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Wastewater Surveillance for Group APathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Review
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

16 authors.

Guangquan LiApplied Statistics Research Group, Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK; Turing-RSS Health Data Lab, UK.
Hubert DeniseAnalytics & Data Science Directorate, UK Health Security Agency, Nobel House, Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR, UK.
Peter DiggleLancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW, UK; Turing-RSS Health Data Lab, UK.
Jasmine GrimsleyAnalytics & Data Science Directorate, UK Health Security Agency, Nobel House, Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR, UK.
Chris HolmesUniversity of Oxford, Oxford, UK; The Alan Turing Institute, London NW1 2DB, UK; Turing-RSS Health Data Lab, UK.
Daniel JamesAnalytics & Data Science Directorate, UK Health Security Agency, Nobel House, Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR, UK.
Radka JersakovaThe Alan Turing Institute, London NW1 2DB, UK; Turing-RSS Health Data Lab, UK.
Callum MoleThe Alan Turing Institute, London NW1 2DB, UK; Turing-RSS Health Data Lab, UK.
George NicholsonUniversity of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Turing-RSS Health Data Lab, UK.
Camila Rangel SmithThe Alan Turing Institute, London NW1 2DB, UK; Turing-RSS Health Data Lab, UK.
Sylvia RichardsonMRC Biostatistics Unit, East Forvie Site, Cambridge CB20SR, UK; Turing-RSS Health Data Lab, UK.
William RoweAnalytics & Data Science Directorate, UK Health Security Agency, Nobel House, Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR, UK.
Barry RowlingsonLancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW, UK; Turing-RSS Health Data Lab, UK.
Fatemeh TorabiSwansea University Medical School, Faculty of Medicine, Health Life Science, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK; Turing-RSS Health Data Lab, UK.
Matthew J WadeAnalytics & Data Science Directorate, UK Health Security Agency, Nobel House, Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR, UK.
Marta BlangiardoMRC Centre for Environment and Health, Imperial College London, St Mary's Campus, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK; Turing-RSS Health Data Lab, UK.

Funding

Department of HealthMedical Research Council MC_UP_A390_1107Medical Research Council MC_UU_00002/10Medical Research Council MR/S019669/1Medical Research Council MR/V028367/1
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The potential utility of wastewater-based epidemiology as an early warning tool has been explored widely across the globe during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Methods to detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater were developed early in the pandemic, and extensive work has been conducted to evaluate the relationship between viral concentration and COVID-19 case numbers at the catchment areas of sewage treatment works (STWs) over time. However, no attempt has been made to develop a model that predicts wastewater concentration at fine spatio-temporal resolutions covering an entire country, a necessary step towards using wastewater monitoring for the early detection of local outbreaks. We consider weekly averages of flow-normalised viral concentration, reported as the number of SARS-CoV-2N1 gene copies per litre (gc/L) of wastewater available at 303 STWs over the period between 1 June 2021 and 30 March 2022. We specify a spatially continuous statistical model that quantifies the relationship between weekly viral concentration and a collection of covariates covering socio-demographics, land cover and virus associated genomic characteristics at STW catchment areas while accounting for spatial and temporal correlation. We evaluate the model's predictive performance at the catchment level through 10-fold cross-validation. We predict the weekly viral concentration at the population-weighted centroid of the 32,844 lower super output areas (LSOAs) in England, then aggregate these LSOA predictions to the Lower Tier Local Authority level (LTLA), a geography that is more relevant to public health policy-making. We also use the model outputs to quantify the probability of local changes of direction (increases or decreases) in viral concentration over short periods (e.g. two consecutive weeks). The proposed statistical framework can predict SARS-CoV-2 viral concentration in wastewater at high spatio-temporal resolution across England. Additionally, the probabilistic quantification of local changes can be used as an early warning tool for public health surveillance.

Indexed as

COVID-19HumansPandemicsRNA, ViralSARS-CoV-2WastewaterRNA, ViralWastewaterBayesian spatio-temporal modelProbabilistic detectionSARS-CoV-2Spatial predictionWastewater viral concentration

Identifiers

PMID36709674
PMCPMC9847331

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.