Quantifying heterogeneous contact patterns in Japan: a social contact survey

• DOI: 10.1186/s12976-019-0102-8
• Publication Date: 2019-03-20T00:04:02Z
• Authors: Lankeshwara Munas...; Yusuke Asai; Hiroshi Nishiura
• Keywords: Social contact; Akaike information criterion; Survey data collection; Reciprocity

Social contact surveys can greatly help in quantifying the heterogeneous patterns of infectious disease transmission. The present study aimed to conduct a survey Japan, offering estimates by age and location validating social matrix using seroepidemiological dataset influenza.An internet-based questionnaire was conducted, covering all 47 prefectures Japan including total 1476 households. quantified assuming reciprocity maximum likelihood method. By imposing several parametric assumptions for next-generation matrix, empirical data influenza A (H1N1) 2009 analysed we estimated basic reproduction number, R0.In total, reported number contacts on weekdays 10,682 whereas that weekend days 8867. Strong age-dependent assortativity identified. Forty percent weekday took place at schools or workplaces, but declined 14% weekends. Accounting heterogeneity with known minimum value Akaike information criterion obtained R0 1.45 (95% confidence interval: 1.42, 1.49).Survey datasets will be useful parameterizing transmission model various directly transmitted diseases Japan. Age-dependent assortativity, especially among children, along numerous school settings implies potential effectiveness closure.