Comparison of Contact Patterns Relevant for Transmission of Respiratory Pathogens in Thailand and the Netherlands Using Respondent-Driven Sampling

Abstract

Understanding infection dynamics of respiratory diseases requires the identification and quantification of behavioural, social and environmental factors that permit the transmission of these infections between humans. Little empirical information is available about contact patterns within real-world social networks, let alone on differences in these contact networks between populations that differ considerably on a socio-cultural level. Here we compared contact network data that were collected in the Netherlands and Thailand using a similar online respondent-driven method. By asking participants to recruit contact persons we studied network links relevant for the transmission of respiratory infections. We studied correlations between recruiter and recruited contacts to investigate mixing patterns in the observed social network components. In both countries, mixing patterns were assortative by demographic variables and random by total numbers of contacts. However, in Thailand participants reported overall more contacts which resulted in higher effective contact rates. Our findings provide new insights on numbers of contacts and mixing patterns in two different populations. These data could be used to improve parameterisation of mathematical models used to design control strategies. Although the spread of infections through populations depends on more factors, found similarities suggest that spread may be similar in the Netherlands and Thailand.

Enhancing Syndromic Surveillance With Online Respondent-Driven Detection

“…Also, this percentage was lower than during our earlier research, in which seeds were first contacted personally. 21 Although, similar to earlier online respondent-driven surveys, 22 we used an incentive in ASeedRec, only a slightly higher recruitment rate was observed in this group than in BSeedRec. Concerns about privacy or not wanting to bother acquaintances with a questionnaire were reported and withheld some participants from sending invitations to contacts.…”

Implementation of Web-Based Respondent Driven Sampling among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Sweden

“…Further, the web-survey was not adapted to tablets or smart phone format, which could have enabled easier participation and peer recruitment. Two other WebRDS studies using email recruitment among the general population in the Netherlands and Thailand reports on similar trends with short recruitment chains and large number of seeds [ 33 , 34 ].…”

Social Contact Structures and Time Use Patterns in the Manicaland Province of Zimbabwe

“…As a consequence, mathematical modeling of infectious diseases, initially based on simplifying theory-driven assumptions [1] such as homogeneous mixing, have gradually shifted towards using empirical evidence on real individuals’ interactions. In particular, over the past decade, field data on social contacts patterns have been gathered through diary-based surveys for a number of countries in Europe [2–7], North America [8], Oceania [9], Asia [6,10–14], South America [15], and Africa [16–18]. Age-specific mixing matrices built on the gathered data have been largely used to model the spread of epidemics driven by close-contact interactions [19–22], and the transmission of endemic childhood infections [23–27].…”