ArticlePLoS medicine2008
Social contacts and mixing patterns relevant to the spread of infectious diseases.
Article in PLoS medicine, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1,498 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
1,498 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A scoping review of COVID-19 modelling studies in Belgium 2020-2024: incorporation of behaviour and lessons learned.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2026Pooled it
- Relevance of social contact definitions for use in infectious disease transmission modeling: a systematic review and recommendations.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Pooled it
- Immunogenicity and seroefficacy of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2024Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Multifaceted Strategies to Increase Influenza Vaccination Uptake: A Cluster Randomized Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- Role-specific household contact patterns in urban and rural China: Implications for influenza household transmission.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2027Article
- Quantifying the community transmission ofEmerging microbes & infections · 2026Article
- Clinical and public health economic impact of rapid strain-matched vaccination in influenza pandemic mitigation: A UK-like population dynamic transmission model.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine (LAIV) for Children for the Prevention of Influenza Illness in Sweden: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.Infectious diseases and therapy · 2026Article
- Postpandemic Social Contact Patterns: A Cross-Sectional Survey in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.Infectious diseases and therapy · 2026Article
- Influenza vaccine protection and contact patterns among outpatients with influenza-like illness during the 2024-2025 season in China: a test-negative case-control study.Journal of global health · 2026Article
- Beyond mean-field age-structured models: degree heterogeneity and cross-country variability in epidemic risk.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2026Article
- Two Versus One COVID-19 Vaccine Dose After Prior SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Nationwide Retrospective Cohort Study.Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Recommendations for the analysis of leading indicators in epidemic surveillance.PLOS digital health · 2026Review
- The coupling process of awareness and disease under the influence of synergistic-hedging effect of information resources.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2026Article
- MEmilio: a high performance Modular EpideMIcs simuLatIOn software for multi-scale and comparative simulations of infectious disease dynamics.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Coupled epidemiological and wastewater modeling at the urban scale: A case study for Munich.iScience · 2026Article
- Current practice and timing of rapid point-of-care testing for acute respiratory tract infections in outpatient care: a retrospective cohort study.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2026Article
- Mapping spatial colleague connectivity patterns from individual-level registry data to inform regional pandemic interventions.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Disentangling the drivers of heterogeneity in SARS-CoV-2 transmission from data on viral load and daily contact rates.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Assessing the costs and benefits of non-pharmaceutical pandemic measures using the economic values of social contacts.The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care · 2026Article
1,438 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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14 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMathematical modelling of infectious diseases transmitted by the respiratory or close-contact route (e.g., pandemic influenza) is increasingly being used to determine the impact of possible interventions. Although mixing patterns are known to be crucial determinants for model outcome, researchers often rely on a priori contact assumptions with little or no empirical basis. We conducted a population-based prospective survey of mixing patterns in eight European countries using a common paper-diary methodology. METHODS AND
findings7,290 participants recorded characteristics of 97,904 contacts with different individuals during one day, including age, sex, location, duration, frequency, and occurrence of physical contact. We found that mixing patterns and contact characteristics were remarkably similar across different European countries. Contact patterns were highly assortative with age: schoolchildren and young adults in particular tended to mix with people of the same age. Contacts lasting at least one hour or occurring on a daily basis mostly involved physical contact, while short duration and infrequent contacts tended to be nonphysical. Contacts at home, school, or leisure were more likely to be physical than contacts at the workplace or while travelling. Preliminary modelling indicates that 5- to 19-year-olds are expected to suffer the highest incidence during the initial epidemic phase of an emerging infection transmitted through social contacts measured here when the population is completely susceptible.
conclusionsTo our knowledge, our study provides the first large-scale quantitative approach to contact patterns relevant for infections transmitted by the respiratory or close-contact route, and the results should lead to improved parameterisation of mathematical models used to design control strategies.
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