Work

Neighborhood-Level Public Facilities and COVID-19 Transmission: A Nationwide Geospatial Study In China

Year: 2020

Type: preprint

Abstract: Background: Individual-level studies on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have proliferated, however, research on neighborhood-level factors associated with COVID-19 is limited. Our study aim at examining the assocaiton between having COVID-19 cases in the neighborhood and public facilities.Methods: We gathered the geographic data of all publically released COVID-19 cases in China and the point-of-interests data from Gaode map including restaurant, shopping center, hotels, living facilities, recreational facilities, public transit, reducation and health services. We used a case-control design (1:4 ratio; 4,329 cases vs. 17,316 controls) to investigate the association between having COVID-19 cases in the neighborhood and the number and types of public facilities nearby. Results: In the multivariable logistics regression model, having more restaurants (high vs. low, OR: 2.09, 95% CI: 1.95, 2.25), shopping centers (OR: 2.27, 95% CI: 2.12, 2.43), hotels (OR: 2.32, 95% CI: 2.16, 2.48), living facilities (OR: 1.82, 95% CI: 1.70, 1.95), recreational facilities (OR: 2.27, 95% CI: 2.11, 2.43), public transit (OR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.23, 1.41), educational institutions (OR: 1.96, 95% CI: 1.83, 2.10), and health service facilities (OR: 4.12, 95% CI: 3.83, 4.44) was associated with significantly higher odds of having COVID-19 cases in a neighborhood. The associations for restaurants, hotels, reactional and education facilities were more pronounced in cities with fewer than six million people than those in larger cities (Psinteraction <0.05).Conclusions: Our results have implications for designing targeted prevention strategies at the neighborhood level to reduce the burden of COVID-19.

Source: medRxiv

DOI: 10.1101/2020.08.25.20181362