The Benefits of Nursing Home Air Purification on COVID-19 Outcomes: A Natural Experiment.
Eric Jutkowitz, Peter Shewmaker, Ann Reddy and 2 others
PMID 37385591WHAT IT FOUND
Air purifiers in nursing homes did not significantly reduce resident COVID-19 cases or deaths.
The observed drop in cases was too small and uncertain to prove the devices worked. Do not change infection control practices based on this pilot.
Key findings
01The number of weekly COVID-19 cases per 1000 residents did not change significantly after the purifiers were installed.
02There was no evidence that installing the purifiers reduced the likelihood of a nursing home reporting a resident death from COVID-19.
03The study could not determine if the devices actually functioned as intended or if other staff-led infection control measures caused the changes.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was a pilot with a small sample of 81 facilities from a single corporation, which limits how much the results can be applied to other nursing homes. The confidence intervals for the main findings were very wide, indicating a high degree of uncertainty in the estimates. Researchers did not know if the air purifiers were actually working as designed or if other infection control measures were introduced at the same time. The study period was before vaccines were available and during a time when community transmission was declining, which makes it difficult to isolate the effect of the air purifiers.
Declared interests
None reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the drop in average cases from 14.3 to 9.3 per 1000 residents as proof that air purifiers work. The statistical analysis showed this difference was not significant, meaning it could easily have happened by chance or due to other factors like declining community spread.