Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40551404›Full record

ArticleResearch report (Health Effects Institute)2025

Effect of Air Pollution Reductions on Mortality During the COVID-19 Lockdowns in Early 2020.

K Chen, Y Ma, A Marb, F Nobile, R Dubrow, M Stafoggia, S Breitner, P L Kinney

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC
In one paragraph

Article in Research report (Health Effects Institute), 2025. 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. Ambient Air Pollution and COVID-19 in California.Research report (Health Effects Institute) · 2026
    Article
  3. How Do Household Energy Transitions Work?Research report (Health Effects Institute) · 2025
    Article
  4. 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

8 authors.

K ChenDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA.
Y MaDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA.
A MarbFaculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
F NobileDepartment of Epidemiology, Lazio Region Health Service, ASL Roma 1, Rome, Italy.
R DubrowDepartment of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA.
M StafoggiaDepartment of Epidemiology, Lazio Region Health Service, ASL Roma 1, Rome, Italy.
S BreitnerFaculty of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.
P L KinneyDepartment of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionCOVID-19 lockdowns led to considerable reductions in air pollutant emissions worldwide, providing a unique opportunity to examine the impacts of reduced air pollution on mortality. This project aimed to quantify changes in nitrogen dioxide (NO

methodsTo account for meteorological impacts and air pollution time trends, we used a machine learning-based meteorological normalization technique and the difference-in-differences approach to quantify changes in NO

resultsWe found that meaningful improvements in air quality occurred during the lockdowns in early 2020 in Jiangsu, China; California, USA; and Central and Southern Italy, with smaller magnitudes of reduction in PM

conclusionsUsing a causal modeling approach, this study contributes to the growing body of evidence that short-term exposures to PM

Indexed as

Air PollutantsAir PollutionCOVID-19MortalityCaliforniaCardiovascular DiseasesChinaEnvironmental ExposureGermanyHumansItalyNitrogen DioxideParticulate MatterSARS-CoV-2Air PollutantsNitrogen DioxideParticulate Matter

Identifiers

PMID40551404
PMCPMC12185919

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.