Imperial College London
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Charlie Whittaker

Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health

Research Fellow
 
 
 
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Contact

 

charles.whittaker16

 
 
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Location

 

Sir Michael Uren HubWhite City Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Mousa:2021:10.7554/eLife.70294,
author = {Mousa, A and Winskill, P and Watson, OJ and Ratmann, O and Monod, M and Ajelli, M and Diallo, A and Dodd, P and Grijalva, CG and Kiti, MC and Krishnan, A and Kumar, R and Kumar, S and Kwok, KO and Lanata, C and Le, Polain de Waroux O and Leung, K and Mahikul, W and Melegaro, A and Morrow, CD and Mossong, J and Neal, EFG and Nokes, DJ and Pan-ngum, W and Potter, GE and Russel, FM and Saha, S and Sugimoto, JD and Wei, WI and Wood, RR and Wu, JT and Zhang, J and Walker, PGT and Whittaker, C},
doi = {10.7554/eLife.70294},
journal = {eLife},
title = {Social contact patterns and implications for infectious disease transmission: a systematic review and meta-analysis of contact surveys},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.70294},
volume = {10},
year = {2021}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Transmission of respiratory pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 depends on patterns of contact and mixing across populations. Understanding this is crucial to predict pathogen spread and the effectiveness of control efforts. Most analyses of contact patterns to date have focussed on high-income settings.Methods: Here, we conduct a systematic review and individual-participant meta-analysis of surveys carried out in low- and middle-income countries and compare patterns of contact in these settings to surveys previously carried out in high-income countries. Using individual-level data from 28,503 participants and 413,069 contacts across 27 surveys we explored how contact characteristics (number, location, duration and whether physical) vary across income settings.Results: Contact rates declined with age in high- and upper-middle-income settings, but not in low-income settings, where adults aged 65+ made similar numbers of contacts as younger individuals and mixed with all age-groups. Across all settings, increasing household size was a key determinant of contact frequency and characteristics, with low-income settings characterised by the largest, most intergenerational households. A higher proportion of contacts were made at home in low-income settings, and work/school contacts were more frequent in high-income strata. We also observed contrasting effects of gender across income-strata on the frequency, duration and type of contacts individuals made.Conclusions: These differences in contact patterns between settings have material consequences for both spread of respiratory pathogens, as well as the effectiveness of different non-pharmaceutical interventions.
AU  - Mousa,A
AU  - Winskill,P
AU  - Watson,OJ
AU  - Ratmann,O
AU  - Monod,M
AU  - Ajelli,M
AU  - Diallo,A
AU  - Dodd,P
AU  - Grijalva,CG
AU  - Kiti,MC
AU  - Krishnan,A
AU  - Kumar,R
AU  - Kumar,S
AU  - Kwok,KO
AU  - Lanata,C
AU  - Le,Polain de Waroux O
AU  - Leung,K
AU  - Mahikul,W
AU  - Melegaro,A
AU  - Morrow,CD
AU  - Mossong,J
AU  - Neal,EFG
AU  - Nokes,DJ
AU  - Pan-ngum,W
AU  - Potter,GE
AU  - Russel,FM
AU  - Saha,S
AU  - Sugimoto,JD
AU  - Wei,WI
AU  - Wood,RR
AU  - Wu,JT
AU  - Zhang,J
AU  - Walker,PGT
AU  - Whittaker,C
DO  - 10.7554/eLife.70294
PY  - 2021///
SN  - 2050-084X
TI  - Social contact patterns and implications for infectious disease transmission: a systematic review and meta-analysis of contact surveys
T2  - eLife
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.70294
UR  - https://elifesciences.org/articles/70294
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/93154
VL  - 10
ER  -
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