Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Jul:64:102398.
doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102398. Epub 2020 Jul 21.

An evidence-based theory of change for reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission in reopened schools

Chris Bonell  1 , G J Melendez-Torres  2 , Russell M Viner  3 , M Brooke Rogers  4 , Michael Whitworth  5 , Harry Rutter  6 , G James Rubin  7 , George Patton  8
Affiliations
Review

An evidence-based theory of change for reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission in reopened schools

Chris Bonell et al. Health Place. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

Schools have closed worldwide as part of measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission but are beginning to reopen in some countries. Various measures are being pursued to minimise transmission but existing guidance has not developed a comprehensive framework or theory of change. We present a framework informed by the occupational health hierarchy of control and a theory of change informed by realist approaches. We present measures focused on elimination, substitution, engineering, administration, education and personal protective equipment. We theorise that such measures offer a means of disrupting SARS-CoV-2 transmission via routes involving fomites, faeco-oral routes, droplets and aerosols.

Keywords: COVID-19; Disease control; Environment; Prevention; SARSCoV2; Schools.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Presents a diagrammatic logic model summarising our theory of change.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alnabulsi H., Drury J., Templeton A. Predicting collective behaviour at the Hajj: place, space and the process of cooperation. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B. 2018;373 20170240. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bhopal S., Buckland A., Mccone R., Villis A., Owens S. Who has been missed? Dramatic decrease in numbers of children seen for child protection assessments during the pandemic. Arch. Dis. Child. 2020 doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2020-319783. https://search.crossref.org/?q=Who+has+been+missed%3F+Dramatic+decrease+... 2020, published Online First. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Blakemore S.J. Avoiding social risk in adolescence. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 2018;27:116–122.
    1. Bonell C., Allen E., Warren E., Mcgowan J., Bevilacqua L., Jamal F., Legood R., Wiggins M., Opondo C., Mathiot A., Sturgess J., Fletcher A., Sadique Z., Elbourne D., Christie D., Bond L., Scott S., Viner R.M. Initiating change in the school environment to reduce bullying and aggression: a cluster randomised controlled trial of the Learning Together (LT) intervention in English secondary schools. Lancet. 2018;392:2452–2464. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bonell C., Beaumont E., Dodd M., Elbourne D., Bevilacqua L., Mathiot A., Mcgowan J., Sturgess J., Warren E., Viner R., Allen E. Effects of school environments on student risk-behaviours: evidence from a longitudinal study of secondary schools in England. J. Epidemiol. Community Health. 2019 doi: 10.1136/jech-2018-211866. Published Online First. 23 February. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms