Observational studyFrontiers in public health2023
Impact of mandatory masking amid the COVID-19 pandemic on outdoor smoking: an interrupted time-series analysis of a 33-month unobtrusive observational study.
Observational study in Frontiers in public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 citations in OpenAlex.
- National prevalence of smoking among adolescents at tobacco tax increase and COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea, 2005-2022.Scientific reports · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Mask-wearing in outdoor public places in Hong Kong was mandated on 29 July 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to evaluate the impact of mandatory masking with no exemption for smoking on outdoor smoking. Methods: We conducted 253 unobtrusive observations at 10 outdoor smoking hotspots in 33 months from July 2019 to March 2022 and counted smokers and non-smoking pedestrians in fixed boundaries. We conducted interrupted time-series analyses on the monthly mean volume of smokers (persons per hour) using generalized linear models. The independent variables were as follows: time since the first observation, implementation of the mask regulation, time since the regulation, seasonality, and waves 1-5 outbreaks. We checked the robustness of the association using the daily mean volume of smokers as the dependent variable. Two sensitivity analyses were conducted to include the hotspot location or the number of all pedestrians as an offset. Results: Monthly outdoor smoking decreased immediately after the regulation (incidence rate ratio [IRR]: 0.505, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.374 to 0.680, Conclusion: Outdoor smoking fell immediately after mandatory masking, rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, and decreased again at the most severe wave 5.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.