County-level exposures to greenness and associations with COVID-19 incidence and mortality in the United States.
Environ Res
; 199: 111331, 2021 08.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1230478
Preprint
This scientific journal article is probably based on a previously available preprint. It has been identified through a machine matching algorithm, human confirmation is still pending.
See preprint
This scientific journal article is probably based on a previously available preprint. It has been identified through a machine matching algorithm, human confirmation is still pending.
See preprint
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
COVID-19 is an infectious disease that has killed more than 555,000 people in the US. During a time of social distancing measures and increasing social isolation, green spaces may be a crucial factor to maintain a physically and socially active lifestyle while not increasing risk of infection.OBJECTIVES:
We evaluated whether greenness was related to COVID-19 incidence and mortality in the US.METHODS:
We downloaded data on COVID-19 cases and deaths for each US county up through June 7, 2020, from Johns Hopkins University, Center for Systems Science and Engineering Coronavirus Resource Center. We used April-May 2020 Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data, to represent the greenness exposure during the initial COVID-19 outbreak in the US. We fitted negative binomial mixed models to evaluate associations of NDVI with COVID-19 incidence and mortality, adjusting for potential confounders such as county-level demographics, epidemic stage, and other environmental factors. We evaluated whether the associations were modified by population density, proportion of Black residents, median home value, and issuance of stay-at-home orders.RESULTS:
An increase of 0.1 in NDVI was associated with a 6% (95% Confidence Interval 3%, 10%) decrease in COVID-19 incidence rate after adjustment for potential confounders. Associations with COVID-19 incidence were stronger in counties with high population density and in counties with stay-at-home orders. Greenness was not associated with COVID-19 mortality in all counties; however, it was protective in counties with higher population density.DISCUSSION:
Exposures to NDVI were associated with reduced county-level incidence of COVID-19 in the US as well as reduced county-level COVID-19 mortality rates in densely populated counties.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
Environ Res
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS