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The association between greenness exposure and COVID-19 incidence in South Korea: An ecological study.
Lee, Kyung-Shin; Min, Hye Sook; Jeon, Jae-Hyun; Choi, Yoon-Jung; Bang, Ji Hwan; Sung, Ho Kyung.
  • Lee KS; Research Institute for Public Health, National Medical Center, Seoul 04564, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: kslee0116@nmc.or.kr.
  • Min HS; Research Institute for Public Health, National Medical Center, Seoul 04564, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: hsmin2019@nmc.or.kr.
  • Jeon JH; Research Institute for Public Health, National Medical Center, Seoul 04564, Republic of Korea; Department of Infectious disease, National Medical Center, Seoul 04564, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: mdjjh@nmc.or.kr.
  • Choi YJ; National Cancer Center Graduate School of Cancer Science and Policy, Gyeonggi-do 10408, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: pastelorange2012@gmail.com.
  • Bang JH; Office for the Central Infectious Disease Hospital, National Medical Center, Seoul 04564, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: roundbirch@gmail.com.
  • Sung HK; Research Institute for Public Health, National Medical Center, Seoul 04564, Republic of Korea; National Emergency Medical Center, National Medical Center, Seoul 04564, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: hokyungsung@nmc.or.kr.
Sci Total Environ ; 832: 154981, 2022 Aug 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1768530
ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has caused an emergency situation worldwide. Investigating the association between environmental characteristics and COVID-19 incidence can be of the occurrence and transmission. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between greenness exposure and COVID-19 cases at the district levels in South Korea. We also explored this association by considering several environmental indicators.

METHODS:

District-level data from across South Korea were used to model the cumulative count of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 persons between January 20, 2020, and February 25, 2021. Greenness exposure data were derived from the Environmental Geographic Information Service of the Korean Ministry of Environment. A negative binomial mixed model evaluated the association between greenness exposure and COVID-19 incidence rate at the district level. Furthermore, we assessed this association between demographic, socioeconomic, environmental statuses, and COVID-19 incidence.

RESULTS:

Data from 239 of 250 districts (95.6%) were included in the analyses, resulting in 127.89 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 persons between January 20, 2020 and February 25, 2021. Several demographic and socioeconomic variables, districts with a higher rate of natural greenness exposure, were significantly associated with lower COVID-19 incidence rates (incidence rate ratio (IRR), 0.70; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.54-0.90; P-value = 0.008) after adjusting covariates, but no evidence for the association between built greenness and COVID-19 incidence rates was found.

CONCLUSION:

In this ecological study of South Korea, we found that higher rates of exposure to natural greenness were associated with lower rates of COVID-19 cases.
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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: COVID-19 Type of study: Experimental Studies / Observational study Limits: Humans Country/Region as subject: Asia Language: English Journal: Sci Total Environ Year: 2022 Document Type: Article

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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: COVID-19 Type of study: Experimental Studies / Observational study Limits: Humans Country/Region as subject: Asia Language: English Journal: Sci Total Environ Year: 2022 Document Type: Article