Methodological limitations in studies assessing the effects of environmental and socioeconomic variables on the spread of COVID-19: a systematic review

Environmental Sciences Europe

Maria A. Barceló¹  Marc Saez¹ 

[1] Research Group On Statistics, Econometrics and Health (GRECS), and CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), University of Girona, Carrer de la Universitat de Girona 10, Campus de Montilivi, 17003, Girona, Spain;CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain;

关键词: COVID-19;    Environmental (meteorological and air pollutants) variables;    Socioeconomic variables;    Social contacts;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12302-021-00550-7

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundWhile numerous studies have assessed the effects of environmental (meteorological variables and air pollutants) and socioeconomic variables on the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of them, however, have significant methodological limitations and errors that could call their results into question. Our main objective in this paper is to assess the methodological limitations in studies that evaluated the effects of environmental and socioeconomic variables on the spread of COVID-19.Main bodyWe carried out a systematic review by conducting searches in the online databases PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus up to December 31, 2020. We first excluded those studies that did not deal with SAR-CoV-2 or COVID-19, preprints, comments, opinion or purely narrative papers, reviews and systematic literature reviews. Among the eligible full-text articles, we then excluded articles that were purely descriptive and those that did not include any type of regression model. We evaluated the risk of bias in six domains: confounding bias, control for population, control of spatial and/or temporal dependence, control of non-linearities, measurement errors and statistical model. Of the 5631 abstracts initially identified, we were left with 132 studies on which to carry out the qualitative synthesis. Of the 132 eligible studies, we evaluated 63.64% of the studies as high risk of bias, 19.70% as moderate risk of bias and 16.67% as low risk of bias.ConclusionsAll the studies we have reviewed, to a greater or lesser extent, have methodological limitations. These limitations prevent conclusions being drawn concerning the effects environmental (meteorological and air pollutants) and socioeconomic variables have had on COVID-19 outcomes. However, we dare to argue that the effects of these variables, if they exist, would be indirect, based on their relationship with social contact.

【 授权许可】

CC BY