Final published version
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Social mixing patterns in rural and urban areas of southern China
AU - Read, Jonathan M.
AU - Lessler, Justin
AU - Riley, Steven
AU - Wang, Shuying
AU - Tan, Li Jiu
AU - Kwok, Kin On
AU - Guan, Yi
AU - Jiang, Chao Qiang
AU - Cummings, Derek A. T.
PY - 2014/6/22
Y1 - 2014/6/22
N2 - A dense population, global connectivity and frequent human-animal interaction give southern China an important role in the spread and emergence of infectious disease. However, patterns of person-to-person contact relevant to the spread of directly transmitted infections such as influenza remain poorly quantified in the region. We conducted a household-based survey of travel and contact patterns among urban and rural populations of Guangdong, China. We measured the character and distance from home of social encounters made by 1821 individuals. Most individuals reported 5-10 h of contact with around 10 individuals each day; however, both distributions have long tails. The distribution of distance from home at which contacts were made is similar: most were within a kilometre of the participant's home, while some occurred further than 500 km away. Compared with younger individuals, older individuals made fewer contacts which tended to be closer to home. There was strong assortativity in age-based contact rates. We found no difference between the total number or duration of contacts between urban and rural participants, but urban participants tended to make contacts closer to home. These results can improve mathematical models of infectious disease emergence, spread and control in southern China and throughout the region.
AB - A dense population, global connectivity and frequent human-animal interaction give southern China an important role in the spread and emergence of infectious disease. However, patterns of person-to-person contact relevant to the spread of directly transmitted infections such as influenza remain poorly quantified in the region. We conducted a household-based survey of travel and contact patterns among urban and rural populations of Guangdong, China. We measured the character and distance from home of social encounters made by 1821 individuals. Most individuals reported 5-10 h of contact with around 10 individuals each day; however, both distributions have long tails. The distribution of distance from home at which contacts were made is similar: most were within a kilometre of the participant's home, while some occurred further than 500 km away. Compared with younger individuals, older individuals made fewer contacts which tended to be closer to home. There was strong assortativity in age-based contact rates. We found no difference between the total number or duration of contacts between urban and rural participants, but urban participants tended to make contacts closer to home. These results can improve mathematical models of infectious disease emergence, spread and control in southern China and throughout the region.
KW - influenza
KW - mathematical modelling
KW - social mixing
KW - contact diary
KW - travel
KW - infectious disease transmission
KW - INFLUENZA-A
KW - CONTACTS
KW - TRANSMISSION
KW - INFECTIONS
KW - SPREAD
KW - PARAMETERS
KW - EPIDEMICS
KW - NETWORKS
KW - EXPOSURE
KW - ONTARIO
U2 - 10.1098/rspb.2014.0268
DO - 10.1098/rspb.2014.0268
M3 - Journal article
VL - 281
JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
SN - 0962-8452
IS - 1785
M1 - 20140268
ER -