Directly observed social contact patterns among school children in rural Gambia
Introduction: School-aged children play a major role in the transmission of many respiratory pathogens due to high rate of close contacts in schools. The validity and accuracy of proxy-reported contact data may be limited, particularly for children when attending school. We observed social contacts...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2024-12-01
|
| Series: | Epidemics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755436524000513 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1846121352455520256 |
|---|---|
| author | Isaac Osei Emmanuel Mendy Kevin van Zandvoort Olimatou Jobe Golam Sarwar Baleng Mahama Wutor Stefan Flasche Nuredin I. Mohammed Jane Bruce Brian Greenwood Grant A. Mackenzie |
| author_facet | Isaac Osei Emmanuel Mendy Kevin van Zandvoort Olimatou Jobe Golam Sarwar Baleng Mahama Wutor Stefan Flasche Nuredin I. Mohammed Jane Bruce Brian Greenwood Grant A. Mackenzie |
| author_sort | Isaac Osei |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Introduction: School-aged children play a major role in the transmission of many respiratory pathogens due to high rate of close contacts in schools. The validity and accuracy of proxy-reported contact data may be limited, particularly for children when attending school. We observed social contacts within schools and assessed the accuracy of proxy-reported versus observed physical contact data among students in rural Gambia. Methods: We enrolled school children who had also been recruited to a survey of Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage and social contacts. We visited participants at school and observed their contact patterns within and outside the classroom for two hours. We recorded the contact type, gender and approximate age of the contactee, and class size. We calculated age-stratified contact matrices to determine in-school contact patterns. We compared proxy-reported estimated physical contacts for the subset of participants (18 %) randomised to be observed on the same day for which the parent or caregiver reported the school contacts. Results: We recorded 3822 contacts for 219 participants from 114 schools. The median number of contacts was 15 (IQR: 11–20). Contact patterns were strongly age-assortative, and mainly involved physical touch (67.5 %). Those aged 5–9 years had the highest mean number of contacts [19.0 (95 %CI: 16.7–21.3)] while the ≥ 15-year age group had fewer contacts [12.8 (95 %CI: 10.9–14.7)]. Forty (18 %) participants had their school-observed contact data collected on the same day as their caregiver reported their estimated physical contacts at school; only 22.5 % had agreement within ±2 contacts between the observed and reported contacts. Fifty-eight percent of proxy-reported contacts were under-estimates. Conclusions: Social contact rates observed among pupils at schools in rural Gambia were high, strongly age-assortative, and physical. Reporting of school contacts by proxies may underestimate the effect of school-age children in modelling studies of transmission of infections. New approaches are needed to quantify contacts within schools. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d237108287d24817beca00f2c47c291b |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1755-4365 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Epidemics |
| spelling | doaj-art-d237108287d24817beca00f2c47c291b2024-12-16T05:35:46ZengElsevierEpidemics1755-43652024-12-0149100790Directly observed social contact patterns among school children in rural GambiaIsaac Osei0Emmanuel Mendy1Kevin van Zandvoort2Olimatou Jobe3Golam Sarwar4Baleng Mahama Wutor5Stefan Flasche6Nuredin I. Mohammed7Jane Bruce8Brian Greenwood9Grant A. Mackenzie10Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Gambia; Department of Disease Control, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK; Correspondence to: MRCG at LSHTM, PO Box 273, Banjul, West Africa, the Gambia.Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the GambiaDepartment of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK; Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UKMedical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the GambiaMedical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the GambiaMedical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the GambiaDepartment of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK; Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK; Centre of Global Health, Charite – Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, GermanyMedical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the GambiaDepartment of Disease Control, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UKDepartment of Disease Control, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UKMedical Research Council Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Gambia; Department of Disease Control, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK; Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia; Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, AustraliaIntroduction: School-aged children play a major role in the transmission of many respiratory pathogens due to high rate of close contacts in schools. The validity and accuracy of proxy-reported contact data may be limited, particularly for children when attending school. We observed social contacts within schools and assessed the accuracy of proxy-reported versus observed physical contact data among students in rural Gambia. Methods: We enrolled school children who had also been recruited to a survey of Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage and social contacts. We visited participants at school and observed their contact patterns within and outside the classroom for two hours. We recorded the contact type, gender and approximate age of the contactee, and class size. We calculated age-stratified contact matrices to determine in-school contact patterns. We compared proxy-reported estimated physical contacts for the subset of participants (18 %) randomised to be observed on the same day for which the parent or caregiver reported the school contacts. Results: We recorded 3822 contacts for 219 participants from 114 schools. The median number of contacts was 15 (IQR: 11–20). Contact patterns were strongly age-assortative, and mainly involved physical touch (67.5 %). Those aged 5–9 years had the highest mean number of contacts [19.0 (95 %CI: 16.7–21.3)] while the ≥ 15-year age group had fewer contacts [12.8 (95 %CI: 10.9–14.7)]. Forty (18 %) participants had their school-observed contact data collected on the same day as their caregiver reported their estimated physical contacts at school; only 22.5 % had agreement within ±2 contacts between the observed and reported contacts. Fifty-eight percent of proxy-reported contacts were under-estimates. Conclusions: Social contact rates observed among pupils at schools in rural Gambia were high, strongly age-assortative, and physical. Reporting of school contacts by proxies may underestimate the effect of school-age children in modelling studies of transmission of infections. New approaches are needed to quantify contacts within schools.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755436524000513SchoolSocial contactsProxy-reported dataSchool-aged childrenStreptococcus pneumonia |
| spellingShingle | Isaac Osei Emmanuel Mendy Kevin van Zandvoort Olimatou Jobe Golam Sarwar Baleng Mahama Wutor Stefan Flasche Nuredin I. Mohammed Jane Bruce Brian Greenwood Grant A. Mackenzie Directly observed social contact patterns among school children in rural Gambia Epidemics School Social contacts Proxy-reported data School-aged children Streptococcus pneumonia |
| title | Directly observed social contact patterns among school children in rural Gambia |
| title_full | Directly observed social contact patterns among school children in rural Gambia |
| title_fullStr | Directly observed social contact patterns among school children in rural Gambia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Directly observed social contact patterns among school children in rural Gambia |
| title_short | Directly observed social contact patterns among school children in rural Gambia |
| title_sort | directly observed social contact patterns among school children in rural gambia |
| topic | School Social contacts Proxy-reported data School-aged children Streptococcus pneumonia |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1755436524000513 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT isaacosei directlyobservedsocialcontactpatternsamongschoolchildreninruralgambia AT emmanuelmendy directlyobservedsocialcontactpatternsamongschoolchildreninruralgambia AT kevinvanzandvoort directlyobservedsocialcontactpatternsamongschoolchildreninruralgambia AT olimatoujobe directlyobservedsocialcontactpatternsamongschoolchildreninruralgambia AT golamsarwar directlyobservedsocialcontactpatternsamongschoolchildreninruralgambia AT balengmahamawutor directlyobservedsocialcontactpatternsamongschoolchildreninruralgambia AT stefanflasche directlyobservedsocialcontactpatternsamongschoolchildreninruralgambia AT nuredinimohammed directlyobservedsocialcontactpatternsamongschoolchildreninruralgambia AT janebruce directlyobservedsocialcontactpatternsamongschoolchildreninruralgambia AT briangreenwood directlyobservedsocialcontactpatternsamongschoolchildreninruralgambia AT grantamackenzie directlyobservedsocialcontactpatternsamongschoolchildreninruralgambia |