Measurement method

Meta-analysis and cohort studies

Also: cohort study, systematic review, randomised trial

The study designs behind most indoor air evidence: cohort studies follow groups over years to link measured exposure with later disease; meta-analyses pool many studies into one estimate with a confidence interval, and are the highest tier of observational evidence.

G-0078 · Updated 5 September 2026 · Coridum Research

Why it matters indoors

Cross-sectional surveys show associations at one moment; cohort studies (children followed from birth, workers followed for decades) establish that exposure preceded disease; randomised intervention trials (air purifiers, stove replacement) come closest to proving cause. Meta-analysis combines results and exposes disagreement between studies — a wide confidence interval or a pooled result driven by one outlier is as important a finding as the average. Coridum’s evidence tables record the design and the interval, not only the headline number.

Identifiers

MeSH
D017418

In the literature

  1. Ngoc et al. Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Human Skin Diseases Due to Particulate Matter… (2017). International journal of environmental research and public health. doi:10.3390/ijerph14121458 CKB 0613
  2. Combined analysis of onco-epidemiological tudies of the relationship between lung cancer and indoor radon exposure (2020). Nukleonika. doi:10.2478/nuka-2020-0012 CKB 0413
  3. Bahreiny Association between ambient particulate matter and semen quality parameters: a systematic review and meta-analysis (2024). doi:10.1186/s43043-023-00162-6 CKB 0688

Studies in the Coridum Knowledge Base in which this term is used. The definition follows standard usage in WHO, ISO and textbook sources; it is not quoted from these papers.

CKB = document number in the Coridum Knowledge Base, our curated library of peer-reviewed studies. Follow the DOI for the original paper.