Social contacts of school children and the transmission of respiratory-spread pathogens

Abstract

Empirical data about contact frequencies of children is needed for estimating parameters in mathematical modelling studies that investigate the effect of targeting influenza intervention to children. A survey about the social contacts of school children was conducted in a primary school in Germany. The distribution of the daily numbers of contacts was stratified by age of the contacted person and by weekday. A negative binomial regression analysis was performed to investigate factors that influence contact behaviour. Using logistic regression analysis we examined the relationship between the numbers of private contacts and having been ill in the last 6 months. We computed effective contact numbers to take the heterogeneity in contact behaviour into account in assessing the contribution of children's contacts to the overall transmission of an infection. The possible effects of intervention measures such as school closure and vaccination on the transmission of respiratory-spread agents to other age groups are discussed.

Fig. 1

The numbers of all reported contacts by day of the week.

Fig. 2

The distributions of the numbers of (a) private contacts and (b) contacts at school.

Fig. 3

The number of private contacts is plotted against the number of school contacts for each respondent. For small contact numbers there is a weak positive correlation, while overall the number of private contacts appears to be uncorrelated with the number of school contacts.

Fig. 4

Distribution of the number of private contacts across age groups. The ages of contacted persons are given in the following categories: age group 1 (preschool children), age group 2 (peers), age group 3 (adolescents), age group 4 (younger adults – parents' age), age group 5 (older adults – grandparents' age).