TY - JOUR
T1 - Quantifying age-related rates of social contact using diaries in a rural coastal population of kenya.
AU - Kiti, Moses Chapa
AU - Kinyanjui, Timothy Muiruri
AU - Koech, Dorothy Chelagat
AU - Munywoki, Patrick Kiio
AU - Medley, Graham Francis
AU - Nokes, David James
PY - 2014/1
Y1 - 2014/1
N2 - BACKGROUND: Improved understanding and quantification of social contact patterns that govern the transmission dynamics of respiratory viral infections has utility in the design of preventative and control measures such as vaccination and social distancing. The objective of this study was to quantify an age-specific matrix of contact rates for a predominantly rural low-income population that would support transmission dynamic modeling of respiratory viruses.METHODS AND FINDINGS: From the population register of the Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System, coastal Kenya, 150 individuals per age group (50 years) exhibited the highest inter-generational contacts. Rural contact rates were higher than semiurban (18.8 vs 15.6, p???=???0.002), with rural primary school students having twice as many assortative contacts as their semiurban peers.CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first age-specific contact matrix to be defined for tropical Sub-Saharan Africa and has utility in age-structured models to assess the potential impact of interventions for directly transmitted respiratory infections.
AB - BACKGROUND: Improved understanding and quantification of social contact patterns that govern the transmission dynamics of respiratory viral infections has utility in the design of preventative and control measures such as vaccination and social distancing. The objective of this study was to quantify an age-specific matrix of contact rates for a predominantly rural low-income population that would support transmission dynamic modeling of respiratory viruses.METHODS AND FINDINGS: From the population register of the Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System, coastal Kenya, 150 individuals per age group (50 years) exhibited the highest inter-generational contacts. Rural contact rates were higher than semiurban (18.8 vs 15.6, p???=???0.002), with rural primary school students having twice as many assortative contacts as their semiurban peers.CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first age-specific contact matrix to be defined for tropical Sub-Saharan Africa and has utility in age-structured models to assess the potential impact of interventions for directly transmitted respiratory infections.
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0104786
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0104786
M3 - Article
VL - 9
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 8
ER -
