Associations between nighttime light and COVID-19 incidence and mortality in the United States

• Published in: International journal of applied earth observation and geoinformation 2022-08, Vol.112, p.102855-102855, Article 102855
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yiming, Peng, Ningyezi, Yang, Shujuan, Jia, Peng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: COVID-19; Epidemic; Nighttime light; Pandemic; Spatial epidemiology
• ISSN: 1569-8432; 1872-826X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jag.2022.102855

•The overall intensity of nighttime light in the U.S. decreased in 2020 compared to 2019.•More intensive nighttime light may be associated with the higher COVID-19 incidence and mortality rates.•Nighttime light may be more strongly associated with COVID-19 incidence rate than mortality rate. COVID-19 has caused almost 770,000 deaths in the United States by November 2021. The nighttime light (NTL), representing the intensity of human activities, may reflect the degree of human contacts and therefore the intensity of COVID-19 transmission. This study intended to assess the associations between NTL differences and COVID-19 incidence and mortality among U.S. counties. The COVID-19 data of U.S. counties as of 31 December 2020 were collected. The average NTL values for each county in 2019 and 2020 were derived from satellite data. A negative binomial mixed model was adopted to assess the relationships between NTL intensity and COVID-19 incidence and mortality. Compared to the counties with the lowest NTL level (0.14–0.37 nW/cm2/sr), those with the highest NTL level (1.78–59.61 nW/cm2/sr) were related with 15% higher mortality rates (mortality rate ratio:1.15, 95 %CI: 1.02–1.30, p-value: 0.02) and 23% higher incidence rates (incidence rate ratio:1.23, 95 %CI: 1.13–1.34, p-value