Equity, accessibility, and public health implications of digital platforms delivering realtime air quality information: A systematic technology review

According to the World Health Organisation, air pollution constitutes the largestenvironmental risk to health globally, with 99% of the world’s population residing inareas exceeding recommended guidelines; the provision of real-time air qualityinformation through mobile or web-based applications, accompanied by behaviouralguidance, offers a critical strategy for reducing individual exposures and improvingpopulation health outcomes. This type of information is provided at different geographicand temporal scales and has become increasingly common and decentralised overtime. As a result, there is a gap in knowledge about the quality, characteristics, andeffects of digitally available air quality information and messaging, which has thepotential to protect public health. This study addresses this gap by conducting asystematic technology review of publicly available digital platforms, or “channels”, thatshare real-time information and data about localised air pollution levels. Using the UKas a case example, computational methods were leveraged to examine how the dataunderpinning existing digital air quality information channels (websites, mobileapplications, sensors, etc.) is generated, and by which entities. This involvedsystematic searches of Google, the Google Play Store (Android), and Apple App Store(iOS) using SerpAPI meta search engine software and a list of search terms. 146channels meeting the inclusion criteria were retained and included in the review.Summary statistics from channel metadata show trends surrounding the prevalence ofcertain types of channels, changes in characteristics channels over time, and otheremerging patterns across the information landscape. This review also examineschannel specific differences in available information, however, was limited to AQchannels accesible in the UK and excluded real-time social media data due to cost andaccess constraints. Lastly, the review considers demographic and other social factorsthat can affect when, where, and how air quality information and exposure reducingbenefits are accessed. Findings from this work contribute to knowledge surroundingthe production and consumption of digitally available air quality information with globalhealth protective potential.