SynthesisEpidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.)2019
A Systematic Review of Social Contact Surveys to Inform Transmission Models of Close-contact Infections.
Synthesis in Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 117 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
117 citing papers in PubMed, 4 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
- Pooled it
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Sex Differences in Social Contact Patterns and Implications for Tuberculosis Transmission and Control.Emerging infectious diseases · 2020Pooled it
- 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
- The impact of public health and social measures on social contact patterns and transmission of COVID-19 in Hong Kong.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Informing quarantine policy for measles control in primary school and daycare settings: insights from a simulation study, Flanders, Belgium.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2026Article
- Estimating modern US social contact patterns, the ENGAGED study: a study protocol for a staggered longitudinal cohort study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Dynamic shift in the dominant transmission route of clade Ib monkeypox virus across networks with sexual and nonsexual contacts.Science advances · 2026Article
- School absenteeism data for surveillance purposes: a proxy for acute respiratory infection rates.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Intraindividual variability in non-household contacts: a German longitudinal study, April 2020-December 2021.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Mobility-driven synthetic contact matrices as a scalable solution for real-time pandemic response modeling.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Relationship between household attributes and contact patterns in urban and rural South Africa.PloS one · 2026Article
- First- and second-order social contact network structure in southern China.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Article
- Characterising non-household contact patterns relevant to respiratory transmission in the USA: analysis of a cross-sectional survey.The Lancet. Digital health · 2025Article
- Multilayer networks describing urban interactions for building the digital twins of five cities in Spain.Scientific data · 2025Article
- Article
- Social contact patterns and their impact on the transmission of respiratory pathogens in rural China.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2025Article
- The effect of COVID-19 vaccination on change in contact and implications for transmission.Epidemics · 2025Article
- From Bites to Bytes: Evaluating User Engagement and Mosquito Bite Exposure Patterns with the Bite Diary Smartphone Application.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2025Article
57 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundResearchers increasingly use social contact data to inform models for infectious disease spread with the aim of guiding effective policies about disease prevention and control. In this article, we undertake a systematic review of the study design, statistical analyses, and outcomes of the many social contact surveys that have been published.
methodsWe systematically searched PubMed and Web of Science for articles regarding social contact surveys. We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines as closely as possible.
resultsIn total, we identified 64 social contact surveys, with more than 80% of the surveys conducted in high-income countries. Study settings included general population (58%), schools or universities (37%), and health care/conference/research institutes (5%). The largest number of studies did not focus on a specific age group (38%), whereas others focused on adults (32%) or children (19%). Retrospective (45%) and prospective (41%) designs were used most often with 6% using both for comparison purposes. The definition of a contact varied among surveys, e.g., a nonphysical contact may require conversation, close proximity, or both. We identified age, time schedule (e.g., weekday/weekend), and household size as relevant determinants of contact patterns across a large number of studies.
conclusionsWe found that the overall features of the contact patterns were remarkably robust across several countries, and irrespective of the study details. By considering the most common approach in each aspect of design (e.g., sampling schemes, data collection, definition of contact), we could identify recommendations for future contact data surveys that may be used to facilitate comparison between studies.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.