Population Exposure to Particulate Matter and COVID-19: An Ecological Study for Health Promotion

Abstract

Background: Documentation of the association between ambient pollution and severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infections are complicated and vague. Objective: This short research investigated the distribution of COVID-19 and its association with particulate matter before mass vaccination. Methods: We used the reported cases and deaths per capita and PM2.5 (particulate matter ≤ 2.5 μm) in 245 cities in the United Kingdom (UK) and United State, of America (USA) based on publicity available secondary data. We performed correlation and regression analysis between variables to explore the association between COVID-19 and PM2.5. Results: The analysis revealed that PM2.5 positively correlated with cases (Unstandardized Coefficient (b):150.04, P=0.006) and deaths per capita (b: 3.87, P=0.005) in total cities, after adjusting for median age and population density. Conclusion: The findings showed that the distribution of the disease may be affected by the PM2.5 concentration.