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

Background While 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 i...

ver descrição completa

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Barceló Rado, María Antonia, Sáez Zafra, Marc
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versão publicada
Data de publicação:2021
País:España
Recursos:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositório:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10256/20018
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10256/20018
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Pandèmia de COVID-19, 2020-
COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-
id ES_dfa59cdd10f706dc97d35c66cf91a23f
oai_identifier_str oai:recercat.cat:10256/20018
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
repository_id_str
spelling Methodological limitations in studies assessing the effects of environmental and socioeconomic variables on the spread of COVID-19: a systematic reviewBarceló Rado, María AntoniaSáez Zafra, MarcPandèmia de COVID-19, 2020-COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-Background While 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 body We 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. Conclusions All 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 contactSpringer2021info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionpeer-reviewedapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10256/20018http://hdl.handle.net/10256/20018Environmental Sciences Europe, 2021, vol. 33, art. núm. 108Articles publicats (D-EC)reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunyainstname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)Inglésinfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1186/s12302-021-00550-7info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/2190-4707info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/eissn/2190-4715Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:recercat.cat:10256/200182026-05-29T05:05:01Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Methodological limitations in studies assessing the effects of environmental and socioeconomic variables on the spread of COVID-19: a systematic review
title Methodological limitations in studies assessing the effects of environmental and socioeconomic variables on the spread of COVID-19: a systematic review
spellingShingle Methodological limitations in studies assessing the effects of environmental and socioeconomic variables on the spread of COVID-19: a systematic review
Barceló Rado, María Antonia
Pandèmia de COVID-19, 2020-
COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-
title_short Methodological limitations in studies assessing the effects of environmental and socioeconomic variables on the spread of COVID-19: a systematic review
title_full Methodological limitations in studies assessing the effects of environmental and socioeconomic variables on the spread of COVID-19: a systematic review
title_fullStr Methodological limitations in studies assessing the effects of environmental and socioeconomic variables on the spread of COVID-19: a systematic review
title_full_unstemmed Methodological limitations in studies assessing the effects of environmental and socioeconomic variables on the spread of COVID-19: a systematic review
title_sort Methodological limitations in studies assessing the effects of environmental and socioeconomic variables on the spread of COVID-19: a systematic review
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Barceló Rado, María Antonia
Sáez Zafra, Marc
author Barceló Rado, María Antonia
author_facet Barceló Rado, María Antonia
Sáez Zafra, Marc
author_role author
author2 Sáez Zafra, Marc
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Pandèmia de COVID-19, 2020-
COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-
topic Pandèmia de COVID-19, 2020-
COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-
description Background While 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 body We 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. Conclusions All 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
publishDate 2021
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2021
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
peer-reviewed
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10256/20018
http://hdl.handle.net/10256/20018
url http://hdl.handle.net/10256/20018
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1186/s12302-021-00550-7
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/2190-4707
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/eissn/2190-4715
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Springer
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Environmental Sciences Europe, 2021, vol. 33, art. núm. 108
Articles publicats (D-EC)
reponame:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
instname:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
instname_str Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
reponame_str Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
collection Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
_version_ 1869422083012820992
score 15,812455

Registros relacionados