Weather Conditions and COVID-19 Incidence in a Cold Climate: A Time-Series Study in Finland
Background: The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is spreading globally at an accelerated rate. There is some previous evidence that weather may influence the incidence of COVID-19 infection. We assessed the role of meteorological factors including temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128/full |
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crfrontiers:10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128 2024-09-09T19:23:59+00:00 Weather Conditions and COVID-19 Incidence in a Cold Climate: A Time-Series Study in Finland Heibati, Behzad Wang, Wenge Ryti, Niilo R. I. Dominici, Francesca Ducatman, Alan Zhang, Zhijie Jaakkola, Jouni J. K. Academy of Finland Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China National Natural Science Foundation of China 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128/full unknown Frontiers Media SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Frontiers in Public Health volume 8 ISSN 2296-2565 journal-article 2021 crfrontiers https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128 2024-08-13T04:04:53Z Background: The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is spreading globally at an accelerated rate. There is some previous evidence that weather may influence the incidence of COVID-19 infection. We assessed the role of meteorological factors including temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) considering the concentrations of two air pollutants, inhalable coarse particles (PM 10 ) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) in the incidence of COVID-19 infections in Finland, located in arctic-subarctic climatic zone. Methods: We retrieved daily counts of COVID-19 in Finland from Jan 1 to May 31, 2020, nationwide and separately for all 21 hospital districts across the country. The meteorological and air quality data were from the monitoring stations nearest to the central district hospital. A quasi-Poisson generalized additional model (GAM) was fitted to estimate the associations between district-specific meteorological factors and the daily counts of COVID-19 during the study period. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to test the robustness of the results. Results: The incidence rate of COVID-19 gradually increased until a peak around April 6 and then decreased. There were no associations between daily temperature and incidence rate of COVID-19. Daily average RH was negatively associated with daily incidence rate of COVID-19 in two hospital districts located inland. No such association was found nationwide. Conclusions: Weather conditions, such as air temperature and relative humidity, were not related to the COVID-19 incidence during the first wave in the arctic and subarctic winter and spring. The inference is based on a relatively small number of cases and a restricted time period. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Subarctic Frontiers (Publisher) Arctic Gam ENVELOPE(-57.955,-57.955,-61.923,-61.923) Frontiers in Public Health 8 |
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Background: The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is spreading globally at an accelerated rate. There is some previous evidence that weather may influence the incidence of COVID-19 infection. We assessed the role of meteorological factors including temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) considering the concentrations of two air pollutants, inhalable coarse particles (PM 10 ) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) in the incidence of COVID-19 infections in Finland, located in arctic-subarctic climatic zone. Methods: We retrieved daily counts of COVID-19 in Finland from Jan 1 to May 31, 2020, nationwide and separately for all 21 hospital districts across the country. The meteorological and air quality data were from the monitoring stations nearest to the central district hospital. A quasi-Poisson generalized additional model (GAM) was fitted to estimate the associations between district-specific meteorological factors and the daily counts of COVID-19 during the study period. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to test the robustness of the results. Results: The incidence rate of COVID-19 gradually increased until a peak around April 6 and then decreased. There were no associations between daily temperature and incidence rate of COVID-19. Daily average RH was negatively associated with daily incidence rate of COVID-19 in two hospital districts located inland. No such association was found nationwide. Conclusions: Weather conditions, such as air temperature and relative humidity, were not related to the COVID-19 incidence during the first wave in the arctic and subarctic winter and spring. The inference is based on a relatively small number of cases and a restricted time period. |
author2 |
Academy of Finland Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China National Natural Science Foundation of China |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Heibati, Behzad Wang, Wenge Ryti, Niilo R. I. Dominici, Francesca Ducatman, Alan Zhang, Zhijie Jaakkola, Jouni J. K. |
spellingShingle |
Heibati, Behzad Wang, Wenge Ryti, Niilo R. I. Dominici, Francesca Ducatman, Alan Zhang, Zhijie Jaakkola, Jouni J. K. Weather Conditions and COVID-19 Incidence in a Cold Climate: A Time-Series Study in Finland |
author_facet |
Heibati, Behzad Wang, Wenge Ryti, Niilo R. I. Dominici, Francesca Ducatman, Alan Zhang, Zhijie Jaakkola, Jouni J. K. |
author_sort |
Heibati, Behzad |
title |
Weather Conditions and COVID-19 Incidence in a Cold Climate: A Time-Series Study in Finland |
title_short |
Weather Conditions and COVID-19 Incidence in a Cold Climate: A Time-Series Study in Finland |
title_full |
Weather Conditions and COVID-19 Incidence in a Cold Climate: A Time-Series Study in Finland |
title_fullStr |
Weather Conditions and COVID-19 Incidence in a Cold Climate: A Time-Series Study in Finland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Weather Conditions and COVID-19 Incidence in a Cold Climate: A Time-Series Study in Finland |
title_sort |
weather conditions and covid-19 incidence in a cold climate: a time-series study in finland |
publisher |
Frontiers Media SA |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128/full |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-57.955,-57.955,-61.923,-61.923) |
geographic |
Arctic Gam |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Gam |
genre |
Arctic Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic Subarctic |
op_source |
Frontiers in Public Health volume 8 ISSN 2296-2565 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Public Health |
container_volume |
8 |
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1809893929917612032 |