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. 2023 Jun 26;23(1):1240.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16144-2.

Reduction of SARS-CoV-2 intra-household child-to-parent transmission associated with ventilation: results from a case-control study

Simon Galmiche  1   2 , Tiffany Charmet  1 , Yoann Madec  1 , Arthur Rakover  1 , Laura Schaeffer  1 , Olivia Chény  3 , Faïza Omar  4 , Sophie Martin  5 , Alexandra Mailles  6 , Fabrice Carrat  7 , Arnaud Fontanet  8   9
Affiliations

Reduction of SARS-CoV-2 intra-household child-to-parent transmission associated with ventilation: results from a case-control study

Simon Galmiche et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Purpose: Our objective was to describe circumstances of SARS-CoV-2 household transmission and to identify factors associated with a lower risk of transmission in a nationwide case-control study in France.

Methods: In a descriptive analysis, we analysed cases reporting transmission from someone in the household (source case). Index cases could invite a non-infected household member to participate as a related control. In such situations, we compared the exposures of the index case and related control to the source case by conditional logistic regression matched for household, restricted to households in which the source case was a child, and the index case and related control were the infected child's parents.

Results: From October 27, 2020 to May 16, 2022, we included 104 373 cases for the descriptive analysis with a documented infection from another household member. The source case was mostly the index case's child (46.9%) or partner (45.7%). In total, 1026 index cases invited a related control to participate in the study. In the case-control analysis, we included 611 parental pairs of cases and controls exposed to the same infected child. COVID-19 vaccination with 3 + doses versus no vaccination (OR 0.1, 95%CI: 0.04-0.4), isolation from the source case (OR 0.6, 95%CI: 0.4-0.97) and the ventilation of indoor areas (OR 0.6, 95%CI: 0.4-0.9) were associated with lower risk of infection.

Conclusion: Household transmission was common during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in France. Mitigation strategies, including isolation and ventilation, decreased the risk of secondary transmission within the household.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT04607941.

Keywords: Family; Home environment; Patient isolation; SARS-CoV-2; Ventilation.

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Conflict of interest statement

FC receives consulting fees from Sanofi.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study design of the inclusion of index cases and related controls for the case–control analysis on household contamination Legend: * The source cases in the household did not participate in the study; †related cases were not included in this analysis; online nationwide study conducted in France between October 2020 and May 2022
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Flow chart for the identification of cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection with a confirmed source case within the household for the descriptive analysis and the selection of pairs of index cases and related controls for the case–control analysis Online nationwide study conducted in France between October 2020 and May 2022
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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