Prospective Diary Survey of Preschool Children's Social Contact Patterns: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Purpose: This pilot study aimed to describe children's social contact patterns and to analyze factors related to their social contacts.Methods: The participants were 30 children aged ≥13 months to <7 years, whose teachers at childcare centers and parents at home were asked to maintain diaries of their social contacts prospectively for 24 hours. Data were collected from November 30, 2018, to January 7, 2019.Results: The 30 participating children were in contact with 363 persons in a 24-hours period (mean, 12.1±9.1). The number of contacts showed significant relationships with day of the week (p<.001), number of family members/cohabitants (p=.015), area of residence (p=.003), and type of housing (p=.002). A multiple regression model showed significantly higher numbers of contacts on weekdays (B=10.64, p=.010). Physical versus non-physical types of contact showed significant differences in terms of duration, location, and frequency (p<.001). The duration of contacts showed significant relationships with their location and frequency (p<.001), while the frequency of contacts was significantly related to their location (p<.001).Conclusion: This is the first survey describing the characteristics of Korean preschool children's social contacts. Further large-scale social contact studies of children should be conducted.

Understanding the risk of transmission of respiratory viral infections in childcare centres: protocol for the DISeases TrANsmission in ChildcarE (DISTANCE) multicentre cohort study

“…Common approaches to contact patterns investigation include direct observation, videotaping, contact diaries, contact surveys and wearable sensors; the selection of approaches often depends on the context of study setting and population. For preschool children, some of the investigation approaches may not be feasible or reliable; for example, most previous contact investigation studies [6][7][8] in preschool settings chose to record contact behaviours of childcare attendees indirectly by requesting teachers at childcare centres or guardians of attendees to complete contact survey forms or diaries, which could lead to substantial recall biases. A study from the Republic of Korea used the videotaping approach for recording hand-toface contacts among childcare attendees although this approach is highly subject to the quality of the video footage and whether a clear view of the study subject can be obtained throughout the process.…”