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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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:7946816 2023-05-15T15:00:31+02:00 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. 2021-02-25 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7946816/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128 en eng Frontiers Media S.A. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7946816/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128 Copyright © 2021 Heibati, Wang, Ryti, Dominici, Ducatman, Zhang and Jaakkola. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. CC-BY Front Public Health Public Health Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128 2021-03-14T02:06:40Z 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. Text Arctic Subarctic PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Gam ENVELOPE(-57.955,-57.955,-61.923,-61.923) Frontiers in Public Health 8 |
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Public Health 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 |
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Public Health |
description |
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. |
format |
Text |
author |
Heibati, Behzad Wang, Wenge Ryti, Niilo R. I. Dominici, Francesca Ducatman, Alan Zhang, Zhijie Jaakkola, Jouni J. K. |
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 S.A. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7946816/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128 |
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 |
Front Public Health |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7946816/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2021 Heibati, Wang, Ryti, Dominici, Ducatman, Zhang and Jaakkola. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.605128 |
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Frontiers in Public Health |
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8 |
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