TY - JOUR
T1 - Time to address the spatiotemporal uncertainties in COVID-19 research
T2 - Concerns and challenges
AU - Helbich, Marco
AU - Mute Browning, Matthew H.E.
AU - Kwan, Mei Po
N1 - Funding Information:
Marco Helbich received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 714993 ). This work was also supported by EXPOSOME-NL, which is funded through the Gravitation program of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research ( NWO grant number 024.004.017 ). Mei-Po Kwan was supported by a grant from the Research Committee on Research Sustainability of Major RGC Funding Schemes of the Chinese University of Hong Kong .
Funding Information:
We thank the editor-in-chief Jay Gan and the four anonymous reviewers for their suggestions to improve the original draft of the correspondence. Marco Helbich received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No. 714993). This work was also supported by EXPOSOME-NL, which is funded through the Gravitation program of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO grant number 024.004.017). Mei-Po Kwan was supported by a grant from the Research Committee on Research Sustainability of Major RGC Funding Schemes of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
PY - 2021/4/10
Y1 - 2021/4/10
N2 - In this correspondence, we emphasize methodological caveats of ecological studies assessing associations between COVID-19 and its physical and social environmental determinants. First, we stress that inference is error-prone due to the modifiable areal unit problem and the modifiable temporal unit problem. The possibility of confounding from using aggregated data is substantial due to the neglect of person-level factors. Second, studying the viral transmission of COVID-19 solely on people's residential neighborhoods is problematic because people are also exposed to nonhome locations and environments en-route along their daily mobility path. We caution against an uncritical application of aggregated data and reiterate the importance of stronger research designs (e.g., case-control studies) on an individual level. To address environmental contextual uncertainties due to people's day-to-day mobility, we call for people-centered studies with mobile phone data.
AB - In this correspondence, we emphasize methodological caveats of ecological studies assessing associations between COVID-19 and its physical and social environmental determinants. First, we stress that inference is error-prone due to the modifiable areal unit problem and the modifiable temporal unit problem. The possibility of confounding from using aggregated data is substantial due to the neglect of person-level factors. Second, studying the viral transmission of COVID-19 solely on people's residential neighborhoods is problematic because people are also exposed to nonhome locations and environments en-route along their daily mobility path. We caution against an uncritical application of aggregated data and reiterate the importance of stronger research designs (e.g., case-control studies) on an individual level. To address environmental contextual uncertainties due to people's day-to-day mobility, we call for people-centered studies with mobile phone data.
KW - Ecological research designs
KW - Environmental determinants
KW - Modifiable areal unit problem
KW - Modifiable temporal unit problem
KW - SARS-CoV-2
KW - Uncertain geographic context problem
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U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142866
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142866
M3 - Letter
C2 - 33071131
AN - SCOPUS:85095433391
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 764
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 142866
ER -